


Twin Terror, The Early Years

by WindChimeGhost



Series: Twin Terror Series [1]
Category: The Matrix (Movies)
Genre: Gen, Ghosts, Humor, Vampires, Werewolves
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2003-08-26
Updated: 2003-08-26
Packaged: 2017-10-12 23:49:27
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 23
Words: 39,172
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/130509
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/WindChimeGhost/pseuds/WindChimeGhost
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The Merovingian created them to cause chaos, so that's what they're going to do even if it means driving the Mero out of his mind while doing it. Take a cute, humorous and delightful look into the childhood of our favorite assassin Twins.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Twins, Pens, and Soap Bars

**Author's Note:**

> ~ Critique not desired ~
> 
> This is by far the most popular and well loved fanfic that I've ever written. It compiled 91 reviews over on FanFiction.net, the most reviews I've ever gotten for a single fanfic. I would have never guessed that this one would become so popular with everyone. It's become somewhat of a classic over the years.
> 
> When I first started writing it, I had no idea that it would end up being 23 chapters long. It probably would have gone on longer than that if I hadn't decided to end it at 23. I felt it had gone on long enough and I was kinda running out of ideas too, so I thought it best that I end it before I ended up ruining it.
> 
> This story takes place before any of the Matrix movies, when the Twins are little kids (around the age of 3 or 4). I also wrote it for humor purpose so it's not to be taken seriously. Just read, enjoy, and laugh!
> 
>  
> 
> The Matrix and all related characters © Wachowski brothers / Warner Brothers
> 
> Fanfic plot created and ©2003 myself

"Get those kids out of here!" The French accented voice rang out.

"Aw, but Mero."

"No buts! Out! Now! Can't you see I'm trying to study, woman?"

"Mero, darling."

"OUT!"

The two little identical albino twins huddled together behind Persephone as they watched the Merovingian's rage.

"Come on, sweeties, Mero's in a bad mood today." Persephone whispered to the two twins as she gently ushered them out of the room.

"If I knew they were going to be that much trouble I would have created them as adults!" The Mero said before going off mumbling to himself in French. He fumbled around on his desk looking for something, picking up papers and other objects and looking under them.

"Persephone, have you seen my pen?"

"No, should I have?" the woman answered coldly.

"Well it's not here anymore. And you're the only one in here besides me." The Mero stopped. "The Twins!"

"Now, honey, you don't know it was them. You could have misplaced it."

"Out of my way." The Mero pushed Perse aside and opened up the door. "Where are those brats?"

"They aren't brats." Persephone grabbed onto her husband's arm to try and calm him down. "They're kids."

"I don't care what you call them! I created them so I have the right to call them whatever I want! Now go get them and bring them here. If they're going to be my bodyguards someday the first thing they should learn is discipline, and that includes taking stuff that doesn't belong to them." The Mero huffed as he made his way back to his desk. Perse sighed and walked down the hall in search of the two twins. She soon came upon them, playing together in one of the other rooms.

"Come here." Perse said sweetly as she motioned for the two to come to her. The little pale dreadlocked kids looked up at Perse and smiled. Of course they weren't her own children, they were programs that the Mero had created, but Persephone liked to think of them as her own. While no one knows if programs go by age, right now the twins appeared to be around the age of three or four. At seeing Perse, the twins got up from the floor and ran to her, throwing their arms around her legs. Perse picked one of them up and held him close to her as she walked out of the room. The other one followed.

"It's about time!" the Mero grumbled as Perse and the twins entered the study. The Mero jumped up and quickly walked toward Perse, grabbing the twin standing beside her by the arm and jerking him forward.

"Where is my pen?" He shouted. The Twin didn't answer but instead started to cry while trying to pry his arm loose from the tight grip of the Mero's hand.

"Mero, you're frightening him." Said Perse.

"I'll do more than that if he doesn't start talking. Besides I didn't program them to fear."

"Well he's scared whether if you programmed him to fear or not, now let go of him!"  
The Mero growled and let the child go. The little twin ran over to Perse and hid behind her legs. Perse bent down on one knee and placed the child she held down beside his brother.

"There, there it's okay. He didn't mean it." Perse cooed to the twin the Mero had grabbed while stroking his long dreadlocked hair. The child sniffed and wiped the tears from his cheeks and slowly looked at Mero. His silver eyes showed that he did fear, feared the man that had grabbed him.

"Perse, please! They're programmed assassins, not your children." The Merovingian did all he could to keep his temper. Perse ignored her husband's words and continued to talk soothingly to the twin.

"Now, sweetie, what did you or your brother do with Mero's pen?"  
The twin, whose name was Two, shuffled his feet around and shyly looked into Perse's face.

"C'mon now, what did you do with the pen?"

The Mero slowly closed his eyes as if to keep himself from losing his temper that he knew was on the verge of exploding. Silently he waited for Persephone to get his pen back. The other twin, named One, slowly walked up to the Mero and pulled out an expensive looking ink pen from his silver coat pocket and handed it up to the Mero and smiled, his silver eyes sparkling. The Merovingian snatched it away from One's hand and glared down at him. One coward then walked back to Perse and Two.

"Now you see, that's the way you go about it." Perse smiled while leading the twins out into the hall. Closing the door, she turned to her husband.

"Perse, you are spoiling those two." The Mero raised his eyebrows.

"Nonsense. Those little angels need someone who can love and take care of them."

"Perse," The Mero sighed. "They are not little angels, they're assassins, killers, I programmed them to cause chaos and havoc, not to be loved and mothered like little babies."

Perse frowned.

"You can't expect them to grow up without some kind of a mother do you?"

"Yes! They're okay like they are. A little stern discipline will make them behave and obey. Some training will turn them into the best bodyguards and killers ever." The Mero pushed his wife's hand away and straightened his tie, which Perse had been fiddling with through the whole conversation.

"You leave them alone. I want them for myself." Perse walked away.

"Listen, I created them, they belong to me. I want you to stay away from them." Mero glared at his wife.

"We'll see." Perse smirked.

"Look, honey, I'm sorry for this whole mess." The Mero's voice changed to a low calm voice as he walked over to Perse. "Let's forget about it, ok? And just try to live with the Twins. You can go near them and I can go near them. Okay? Sound good?"

Perse nodded and smiled, brushing back her long dark hair. "I'll go start dinner." She whispered before giving Mero a kiss.

"Sounds good. I'm going to go take a quick shower to cool off my temper." The Mero grinned. "Tonight after dinner we can spend a quiet evening alone. How does that sound? Just you, me, and no one else."

"You've got yourself a deal." Persephone smiled and walked down the hall. The Mero closed the door to his study and started down the opposite way, meeting up with the twins who were carrying some rather wicked looking guns. The Mero stopped and looked the two over.

"Well, what do you want?" He said gruffly.

"Can we play with our machine-guns in the hallway? Pleeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeese?" Two smiled.

"Yeah, Daddy, can we?" One puppy dog eyed.

"NO! No playing with machine-guns in the chateau."

"Aw, please?" both twins grinned together.

"NO! And that's final! Go help Perse with dinner or something. I'm going to go take a shower."

Mero grumbled as he pushed his way past the two.

"And don't call me daddy!" he yelled back over his shoulder.

The Twins watched as Mero disappeared down another hall and heard a door slam.

"Ooh, Daddy's going to take a shower." One jabbed Two with his elbow and smiled evilly. Two returned the smile with an even evil one. Both twins phased.

"PERSEPHONE!" the voice of the Merovingian roared through the chateau's halls, loud enough to crack the plaster on the ceilings. Persephone came to the bathroom door as quickly as she could. Before she could touch the doorknob the Merovingian appeared in her face. She looked him over in a puzzling way. He was dressed in nothing but a towel wrapped around his waist, water dripping from his hair.

"Where are they?" the Mero said through gritted teeth.

"Who?" Perse blinked, not quite understanding her husband.

"Those two little albino monsters, that's who!"

"What'd they do this time?"

"They came in here when I was taking a shower and turned on the cold water!"

Perse had to fight back a smile.

"After that they took my soap and phased somewhere else."

Perse was on the verge of bursting out laughing.

"Well don't just stand there! Go find my soap!"

Persephone walked off, waiting for a chance to relieve her laughter. Upon walking down the hall she heard the twins in one of the rooms.

"What does it taste like?" One asked.

"Ick! Tastes terrible." Two made a weird face then spit out a piece of soap.

"One, Two!"

The Twins looked around at Perse standing in the doorway.

"You put that soap down right now. How many times have I told you not to put things in your mouth?" Perse grabbed Two and gently slapped his cheek to make him open his mouth. "Did you swallow it?"

Two nodded.

One got up and started walking toward the door.

"One, come here." Perse said sternly, not looking up from getting the little soap bits out of Two's mouth.

One slowly walked back, his hands behind his back.

"I didn't eat any of it." One mumbled innocently.

Perse sighed, picked up what was left of the soap bar and grabbed Two's arm.

"C'mon, get up." Perse pulled Two up and dragged him over to a corner of the room. She let go of his arm and motioned for him to turn around and face the corner. Two lowered his head and turned around.

"Now you stay there till you learn to behave." Perse said then looked at One. "Don't you bother him either." She pointed her finger at him. Perse turned and walked from the room.

"Well?" the Mero glared from behind the bathroom door.

"Here's your soap." Perse placed the gnawed bar in his hand. He stared at it then looked at Perse.

"Your little creations couldn't wait until dinner." Perse smirked before walking away.


	2. Kitchen Chaos

Persephone stood at one of the kitchen counters and looked through a French recipe book. Several of the servants and cooks darted here and there around her. The kitchen doors suddenly came open and in walked the Twins. Perse looked up as the two silently approached her.

"Well, are you going to be good?" She looked at Two who stood with his hands behind him. He nodded and leaned against the cabinet. While one of the cooks came up and started talking to Perse, the Twins looked around the huge kitchen. Many cooks, maids, servants, butlers, and other people were busy preparing that evening's meal. Some were at the stove, others leaned over a long table in the middle of the room, and others washed dishes. It all seemed rather boring to the two youngsters until One spotted a row of carving knives hung on one of the far walls. He looked at Two, nudged him and pointed toward the knives. Both smiled. Surely they wouldn't get in trouble for borrowing them for awhile. Besides the Mero had given them each a razor of their own. The Twins looked up at Perse, who was still in deep conversation with the cook, then phased and reappeared over on the other side of the room next to the wall with the knives. One problem though, they were too short to reach them. One walked over to a stool that was setting nearby and pushed it over until it was right under the knives, then climbed up the side of it until he reached the top and stood up, placing his hands against the wall to balance himself. One glanced across the room to make sure Perse wasn't watching then looked over the choice of knives before him. He pulled off one of the bigger knives and handed it down to Two. He turned and pulled off another one and handed it down before reaching for two more for himself.

"What are we gonna do with 'em?" Two asked.

"Fight of course!" One jumped down from the stool and he and Two began clashing the knives together in a fencing way. They laughed and chased each other, then went back to hitting the knives together. The Twins, for awhile, went unnoticed by the cooks, servants, and Perse until One threw one of his knives. The knife flew across the kitchen and stuck in one of the cabinets beside Perse's head, the knife's blade just skimming her face. She dropped the book she held and scrambled to get away while not really realizing what had happened. She turned and looked the knife over from the tip of its wicked blade that was stuck good in the wood cabinet, all the way down to the end of its wooden handle. Once the other people in the room finally realized what had actually flown by them, they all started screaming and scrambling to get out of the way. Not paying any attention to the ruckus they had started, the Twins continued their battle, running through the crowded kitchen while waving their knives in the air and shouting, their silver dreadlocks and coats flying behind them. Several of the maids jumped up in the chairs to get out of the Twins' way as they bolted through like a couple of wild savages. One of the cooks dropped a bowl of flour when Two hit against his legs, and started yelling at the twin in French. The china bowl hit the floor with a loud crash, sending pieces of glass and a great cloud of flour dust everywhere.

"Two, One!" Perse shouted through the mayhem. The Twins stopped abruptly right into Persephone's arms and looked up at her, both of them smiling. Persephone snatched the knives out of their hands and gave them to one of the cooks. "Just look what you've done!" she said while pointing to the people standing around the kitchen staring in her direction. The Twins lowered their heads shamefully and slowly turned to look at everything. To them it was cool. They had actually caused all of that, but they knew they were in trouble and that it was a good idea if they didn't smile this time. They turned back to the angry Perse and coward. She took them by the arms and pushed them up against the cabinet where they had been standing at before.

"Now don't you move from that spot." she firmly said before turning to help clean up everything.

The Twins looked at each other then turned to watch Perse and the cooks. Getting bored, Two turned and opened one of the drawers to the cabinet and pulled out several utensils. One did the same, only the drawer he opened was full of dishcloths and rags. Rag after rag, cloth after cloth, One continued to pull them out until the drawer was empty and all the nice clean dishcloths were scattered on the floor. At that moment, the Merovingian came through the kitchen doors.

"Perse!" he gasped.

Perse looked up from what she was doing.

"What is it?" she asked. All the Mero could do was point toward the Twins. Perse groaned at the sight. She walked over and grabbed the Twins by the arms again. Two dropped the utensils he held in his hands as Perse dragged them over to the Mero.

"You watch them for once. They found the carving knives awhile ago and nearly killed me." Perse pointed at the knife still stuck in the cabinet. "And look at the mess they made." She gestured at all the flour everywhere.

"Me watch them?" The Mero looked down at the Twins.

"I thought you'd want to. After all you _did_ create them. The way you act I almost gather that you don't care about them."

"I _do_ care about them. It's just that..."

"They aren't adults?" Perse looked into the Mero's face. "Why did you make them children if you don't like children?"

"I made them children so they could learn and grow up to be assassins. You learn easier and quicker when you're young, or at least humans do. I was hoping it would be the same way with these."

"You can always reprogram them to be adults and make them smarter."

"Then you'd yell at me for doing it because I would have taken away your 'little angels'." The Mero frowned.

"Well, we're going to have to do something. They're about to drive us all crazy." Perse sighed. "Look at us, yelling and snapping at each other. It's not normal." Perse grabbed hold of Two's coat when he started to walk away.

"What do you suggest?"

"Punishment." Perse looked down at the Twins. "We've never come to a decision on what punishment we're going to have for them."

"We could lock them in their room." The Mero crossed his arms.

"No, they can phase and get out."

"I can take their phasing powers away until they learn."

The Twins' heads perked up at the Mero's words.

"Although I still say the old fashioned way is still the best."

"Spanking?" Perse looked at the Mero. He nodded. The Twins looked at both Mero and Perse nervously. Persephone bent down and placed her arms around the two.

"You can't do that to them." Perse kissed them both and hugged them. "The little angels."

The Mero sighed and rolled his eyes. He was going to say something, but he decided not to.

"Come on, we'll lock them in their room until dinner." The Mero grabbed onto One while Perse took Two.

The room was small compared to some of the other rooms of the chateau, but it was big enough for both Twins and their belongings. The once beautiful dark blue carpet had frazzled and worn places all over it from where the Twins had been working at it with their razors. Two beds, one on each side of the window, filled up a great deal of space while a desk, dresser, night table, and a toy chest took up the rest. All of the beautiful wood furniture also had nicks and splintered places in it from the Twins' razors. The ceiling above one of the beds had bullet holes in it from the little incident of when Two took his machine-gun to bed with him and it accidentally went of. Persephone had to do all she could that night to calm the Merovingian down and to keep him away from the Twins. Something about his 'precious' French chateau.

Perse and the Mero placed the Twins in their room and walked toward the door.

"But Daddy," Two sniveled.

"I said no whining. I've taken your phasing powers away so don't try and think you can get out. You both have been running a little too wild around here. It's time you start learning to behave yourselves. You both are staying in here until dinner." The Mero turned to Perse and both of them went out and closed the door behind them. The Twins looked at each other. One jumped off of the bed and ran to the wall, trying to go through it. He slammed hard into it and fell back onto the floor. Tears swelled up in his eyes as he tried soothing the pain in his head. He lay back down and buried his face in the carpet and started to cry, either because of the pain or from the fact that he was scared of being locked in or both. Two watched in silence. It was a new experience for the both of them. They had never been locked up in a room before, especially without their phasing abilities. As he watched his brother cry, Two began to get scared too. He picked up a small blanket lying on the bed beside him, walked over to One and put one corner of the blanket in his hand. One slowed his crying and opened his eyes to see what his brother had placed in his hand, and at seeing the blanket he looked up into his brother's face. Two smiled and sat down on the floor next to One. One lay back down and pulled the blanket up to his face.

"Look on the bright side of it, at least they didn't spank us." Two softly said while rolling a toy Cadillac back and forth on the floor.

"Yeah." One's voice was muffled by the thumb stuck in his mouth.

"What does it feel like not being able to phase?"

"Feels horrible, like a part of us has been taken away." One turned his head over and looked at Two. Two took out his razor, opened it and began running his finger down the sharp side of the blade. For about an hour the Twins sat in silence and waited until the Mero and Perse came to let them out.


	3. Makeup and the Twins

It was the same way every time they sat down to eat. That's why he never let them go to his restaurant. The Merovingian sat at the dinner table, his fork halfway up to his mouth, and watched as the two Twins cut their food with their pearl handled razors and ate like a bunch of Vikings. The Mero rolled his eyes and placed his fork back down on his plate and swiped his mouth with his napkin. Just watching them eat was enough to gross him out.

"Perse, if you want so much to care for those two, why not take the time to teach them table manners?"

Perse smiled at her husband. "What's wrong with the way they eat now?"

"Haven't you noticed at all?" The Mero leaned on the table. "Take a look." He pointed to the other end of the table where the enormous food battle was taking place. Perse turned her head toward the Twins. Whatever the Twins had been eating (if you can even call it that) was now all over them, the tablecloth, and whatever else that was unfortunate enough to be within five feet of them. Persephone cringed then slowly turned back to her husband.

"I see what you mean." she said under her breath, losing her appetite too. "Children." Perse started to get up. The Twins stopped throwing food and watched as Perse came around to where they were.

"You aren't going to lock us in our room again are you?" One softly asked. Perse smiled.

"No, I'm not going to lock you in your room, but this has got to stop." Perse picked up Two and looked him over. "There are such things as eating utensils you know." She grabbed a cloth napkin from the table and started to wipe Two's face off.

"Two, phase will you?"

She stepped back while Two phased, reappearing clean again. One did the same.

"That's much better." Perse sighed. "Shame the table can't do that." She turned to look at the mess on the tablecloth.

"One of the maids can get it, dear." The Mero put his glass down on the table and leaned back in his chair. "If they're done, Cain and Abel can take them."

"Cain and Abel?" the two twins said in unison.

"Yes, they're going to be watching out for you two tonight so the Mero and I can have some time to ourselves." Perse picked Two up and carried him over to the Mero. One walked over next to his brother. The Merovingian got up and stepped out of the room for a few minutes then came back in, followed by two dark hair men wearing shades and black clothes.

"This here is One and that's Two." the Mero said to the two men as he pointed out the twins. "Take good care of them."

The Twins, at first, weren't too sure of their new guardians, but with a little persuading from Perse they soon disappeared out the door, along with Cain and Abel.

"Peace at last." the Mero sighed while walking back to the table. "You almost ready to go to the restaurant for a night alone?"

"Yes. Just let me get my shawl and I'll be ready." Perse smiled while walking out of the room.

After cunningly planning the escape from Cain and Abel during a game of blindman's buff, the Twins ran down the hall toward their room and stopped.

"Want to go see what's in Mummy and Daddy's bedroom?" One looked at Two.

"You think we should?"

"Yeah! It'll be fun." One walked down the hall a little ways and stopped in front of the huge wooden door and motioned for Two to come over to him. Two sighed and walked over.

"I dunno about this. We saw how mad Daddy got in the kitchen." Two shuddered.

"We can go in and look around a bit and be out before Mummy and Daddy get back."

The Twins opened the door to the bedroom and walked in. Immediately they went over to Perse's vanity. Many times they had watched her put on what she called 'makeup' there. Getting up on the vanity's fancy silk topped stool, the Twins found delight in looking over the many bottles, tubes, and containers.

"Oooh, cool!" Two giggled, picking up a tube of hand cream and squeezing it till the top burst open, squirting the cream all over the mirror.

"Wow! Do that again!" One nudged his brother. Two closed the cap and squeezed again, causing the top to burst open squirting more cream in a zig-zag line across the vanity mirror. Both laughed and looked at each other, then smiled together.

"Think we should give Daddy a makeover while he's sleeping?" Two said evilly.

"Yes we should." One nodded. "We'll do it tonight. Right now we should check out the rest of this stuff."

The Twins opened up every bottle and container, looking through everything and sniffing the many scents.

"What do you suppose this is?" Two held up a long thin tube like pencil.

"I've seen Mummy use that to put something red on her lips with. Here you take it and turn it a little." One turned one end of the tube until a red stick came out. Two looked at it then ran it across the top of the vanity.

"Look, you can draw with it." Two grinned and started to draw a picture with it.

One picked up a bottle of fingernail polish, opened it and smelt. He jerked his head back and wrinkled his nose at the horrid scent.

"Here, I think you can use this to paint with." One dotted a clean area of the table with the small brush. Finding that it left a blot of the colored stuff, One continued to dot more places.

"Hey, look it's Daddy." Two snickered at the pitiful picture he had drawn with the lipstick. One smirked.

"He needs a little more hair." One pointed at one area of the drawing.

"That's not his head."

"It's not?"

"No, that's his face. His head is right here." Two pointed at the top.

"Oh!" One tilted his head to the side, trying to make out Two's scribbles.

"What's yours?" Two pointed at the dots One had made with the nail polish.

"Bullet holes!" One grinned while dotting the table more.

Several hours passed and Persephone and Merovingian returned from the restaurant. The Merovingian was the first one to walk to the bedroom. He stopped in the doorway and stared. The Twins sitting in the middle of the floor jerked their heads up.

"Perse, I think you should come take a look!" the Mero shouted down the hall. Perse came running into the bedroom and gasped.

"Now tell me they're your 'little angels'." the Mero snickered.

"Boys! How could you!" Perse again gasped as she looked down at the Twins. Both were covered in lipstick, rouge, powder and other makeup. Lipstick smears covered the floor where they sat as well as several areas of the bedspread. The vanity was another matter.

"Oh me, what a mess." Perse cringed while picking up One. She handed One to the Mero.

"Clean him up." she said while picking up Two.

"Me clean him up?" the Mero held the dirty twin out away from his nice clean suit. "So let me guess, when they're clean and running through the halls, they're yours, but when they get dirty and messy, they're mine. Correct?"

Perse smiled, setting Two on the edge of the bed and walking into the bathroom that was connected to their bedroom. The Mero continued to hold One out away from him as if he were infected by a disease. Perse came back with a wet cloth and bent down beside the bed and rubbed the cloth over Two's face. Two squirmed, but let Perse continue to wash him.

"There we are." Perse smiled at Two after she had wiped the last bit of lipstick off of his cheek. Two scowled and phased to get the rest of him clean. Perse smiled again.

"Tell this one to phase!" the Mero said, still holding One. One phased out of the Mero's hands and appeared on the bed next to his twin. Both were now clean.

"Come on you two, let's go to bed." Perse motioned for the Twins to get up and go to their room.

"By the way. Where's Cain and Abel?" the Mero stopped the two before they got out into the hall.

"Probably still wandering around trying to find us." One smiled.

"What!"

"We were playing blindman's buff."

"Oh, I see." the Mero glared.

"Mummy, will you read us a story?" Two looked at Perse.

"Sure. As soon as you get ready for bed I'll be in to read you a story."

The Twins ran off toward their room.

"Aren't they sweet?"

"I don't see anything sweet about them. Look what they did to this room! I programmed them to cause havoc but this is ridiculous." Merovingian tried not to get on the makeup smeared on the vanity and floor. "And you aren't upset about this?"

"Of course I'm upset. But there's nothing I can do about it now, but clean it up."

"Nothing you can do about it? Punish them again!"

"I don't want to punish them. You saw how frightened they were when we locked them in their room."

The Mero shook his head and mumbled something under his breath while looking for a clean place to sit down.

After reading a story to the Twins and making sure they were in bed, Perse returned to the bedroom. Mero was lying in bed reading.

"I'll just have one of the maids clean this up in the morning." Perse yawned.

The Merovingian only huffed and continued reading.

In the Twins bedroom, however, something else was being planned for the next morning.

"He must be asleep by now." Two whispered to the bed opposite from him.

"Yeah. Let's go." One whispered back.

The Twins quietly walked out of their room, carrying the makeup they had stuffed in the pockets of their coats earlier.

"You go get the paint, I'll start on Daddy." One whispered to Two. Two ran off and One walked up to the door of Perse and Mero's bedroom and gently pushed it open, careful not to make any noise. All was going okay. No noise except for the Merovingian's loud snoring. One shook his head at the sound and softly got up onto a chair placed beside the bed. It was going to be hard working in the dark, but he'd have to do the best he could. One positioned himself over the Merovingian and stared at the sleeping man a few minutes. The Mero snorted and wheezed then started to snore loudly again. One's eyebrows raised as he watched the Mero sleep.

"Maybe I should take his tonsils out instead." One whispered to himself. "With all that noise, it's got to keep Mummy awake."

Persephone at that moment turned over the other way while nudging the Mero to get him to shut up.

"Mmm…wha?" the Mero mumbled then drifted back off to sleep. One sighed in relief. For a minute he thought the Mero would wake up. Two slowly walked into the bedroom, carrying a bucket and brush. One nodded to Two then turned back to the Mero.


	4. Pink Polka Dots and Tasty Wheat

Morning came, and with it the sound of the Merovingian screaming and shrieking in French. Perse tried calming him down but it was no use.

"Look at me!" The Mero gasped again while looking in the bathroom mirror. "I look like something from a horror movie!" His face was covered in pinkish rouge, bright red lipstick covered his lips and also his cheeks and nose, and dark eye shadow circled his eyes, making them look as though someone had socked him. To top things off, whoever had done it had also put hair curlers in his hair.

"Perse, don't just stand there gawking, help me get this off!" The Mero's eyes widened. Perse blinked several times then proceeded to help the Mero. Both of them walked back into the bedroom where the Mero seated himself on the edge of the bed while Perse sat beside him and raised a wet cloth to his face.

"I am going to get those two. I am going to get them!" The Mero grumbled through his teeth while Persephone washed the makeup off with the wet cloth. The Mero grabbed Perse's arm for a minute. "What is it?" she asked.

"Look at this room!" He quietly said, his eyes following the walls. Perse looked around too. "Those little monsters painted pink dots all over the walls!" the Mero's eyes grew big. "What do they have against me?"

"They're only having a bit of fun with you." Perse continued wiping the Mero's face while trying to hide a laugh.

"Fun? You call this fun? I go to sleep the night before and I wake up the next morning to see myself looking like a fool and the walls of my bedroom painted with pink polka dots. That's fun?"

"Honey, you're going to have to learn to control your temper with them. After all you did program them to destroy and cause chaos."

"Yes I programmed them to do that, but I didn't mean for them to use it against me! They've got good destroying skills, but they need to learn to control them."

Perse and Mero looked up at the bedroom door when they heard giggling on the other side of it.

"That does it!" The Mero pushed Perse's hand away and ran to the door, the curlers, still in his hair, bobbing. "I'm usually a quiet and peaceful man, but this has gone too far."

The Mero rushed out of the room and stopped at the Twins' bedroom door. It was locked from the inside.

"Open this door right now!" The Mero banged hard on the wooden door and jiggled the doorknob. "Come on. Open it."

The Twins refused to open the door and continued to giggle and laugh. The Mero stomped off down the hall. One of the maids seeing him moved to one side and stared immensely as he walked by her.

"You never saw me." Was the Mero's reply to the silent staring woman as he turned a corner and disappeared.

A few minutes later, the Mero returned to the still locked door. Perse stuck her head out of their bedroom and watched the Mero.

"What are you doing?"

"I took the Twins' phasing powers away again and now I'm going to get them." The Mero pushed the spare key he held in his hand into the doorknob and turned it. "I want you to go downstairs and start helping with breakfast."

"But what are you going to do to the Twins?"

"Nothing of your concern. I'm just going to have a little talk with them, that's all. Now go!" The Mero watched as

Persephone walked down the hall and disappeared.

After a long wait at the dinning room table, Perse began to wonder. What was taking the Merovingian so long? And what was he doing to the Twins? He'd never been late for breakfast before. She started to get up from her chair, but sat back down when the Mero came through the door, the Twins entering behind him. Her husband was clean and his hair straight. The Twins slowly and silently walked to their places at the table and hopped up in their chairs. This time they were seated opposite from Persephone so that she could keep an eye on their manners.

"What took you so long?" Perse asked as the Mero sat down in his chair.

"I had to clean myself up and take the curlers out of my hair."  
Persephone almost laughed. She turned to the Twins who were, surprisingly, sitting quietly for once. One picked up a spoon and poked at the stuff in the bowl setting in front of him. Two looked like he had been crying.

"Mero, what did you do to them? They're so quiet." Perse whispered.

"As I said before, I had a little talk with them." The Mero sighed as he glanced at the two.

"Did you give them their phasing abilities back?"

"No. And they aren't getting them back either until they start acting a little better."

One continued to poke at the glob of goo in his bowl.

"What is this?" he finally asked, looking up at the Mero.

"Tasty wheat." The Mero answered.

Two took his spoon and tasted it then winced.

"Eeew! I don't like it."

"Tastes nasty." One added after tasting it too.

"Eat it whether if it tastes nasty or not." The Mero snapped.

One scooped up a spoonful of the messy stuff and threw it into the Mero's face. The glob slid down and tumbled down the front of his robe before landing in his lap.

"I don't like it!" One said.

The Mero sighed and sat for a few minutes, tapping his fingers on the table.

"One, you shouldn't have done that." Two nervously whispered to his brother.

"One, go up to your room. I'll be up there in a minute." The Mero forced himself to talk normal.

One frowned and slumped down in his chair.

"Go on."

One slowly got up and walked out of the room. The Mero turned and glared at Two.

"I like it now. Tastes good." Two quickly picked up his spoon and started stuffing his mouth with the tasty wheat. The   
Mero wiped his face and clothes with his napkin before getting up and walking out of the room too. Two slowed his eating and turned to Perse.

"Can I have my phasing back?" he timidly asked.

"If Mero says no, then no." Perse softly answered. Two frowned. "I'm sorry, sweetie, but that's the way it's got to be.   
The Mero's right, you two have been causing an awful lot of trouble around here lately."

"We told him we were sorry." Two frowned more.

"Did you mean it?"

"Yes!"

"Are you not going to cause anymore trouble?"

Two shrugged.

"Well, finish your breakfast. I'm going to have to go to town for awhile today. I want you and your brother to be good for the Mero while I'm gone, okay?"

Two smiled and nodded.

"Maybe when I get back there'll be a surprise for the both of you." Persephone got up and walked out of the room, only to meet up with the Merovingian coming down the hall toward the dinning room.

"You left him alone?" the Mero's eyes widened.

"Don't worry, they won't be any trouble while I'm gone." Perse smiled.

"Gone? Where? Where are you going?" The Mero tried keeping calm.

"To town. I've got to run there today to pick up some things."

"You mean to tell me you're leaving me here alone with those Twins?"

"Sure. They won't be any trouble. Besides they're yours anyway, remember? You can go train them or whatever you wanted to do. If you have any trouble you can always call Cain and Abel to help."  
Persephone kissed the Mero's cheek.

"Bye, honey. I'll be back this afternoon."

The Mero leaned against the hall wall as Persephone walked off. After getting his sense back he walked into the dinning room where Two was still seated at the table. Two stared as the Mero seated himself at the table and looked over at him.

"So I understand I'm to baby-sit you two today." The Mero cleared his throat and shakily grabbed his napkin. Two only stared.

"Where's One?" Two softly asked.

"He's up in his room. He's going to stay there for awhile until he learns a few things."

Two looked down at the table.


	5. Babysitting

So far so good, the Twins hadn't been too much trouble. As a matter of fact, they were a little too quiet. The Mero was beginning to wonder about them when he hadn't heard very much noise coming from them within an hour or so from eating breakfast. He put the papers he held down on his desk and walked out into the hall to listen. No noise at all except for maids and butlers talking off in a distance in one of the other rooms. Where were the Twins? He proceeded to go down the hall until he came to the Twins' bedroom door. It was open so he walked on in. They weren't there. He went out and started looking in each room as we went down the hall. One of the last doors on the right was closed. He grabbed the doorknob and opened it to find the Twins sitting on the floor. The Mero's eyes widened. The Twins looked up at him while holding paintbrushes, crayons, and markers. The wall in front of them was covered with brightly colored drawings, scribbles, and other little marks along with a great many paint handprints. Two was in the middle of writing something vertical in the Matrix code while One was drawing the outline of a white rabbit with a black crayon. On the floor were paint bottles (some of which were overturned, spilling its contents), paint smears, and paint handprints. The Twins' once silver clothes and pale cheeks matched everything. The Mero took a deep breath to try and calm himself. The Twins moved restlessly while staring at the Mero, expecting him to go off yelling in French again. Two slowly and carefully put down the paintbrush he held and stood up. One stood up too.

"There _is_ such a thing as paper, you know." The Merovingian calmly said. The Twins lowered their heads and shuffled their feet.

"Come on I'll clean you up and the maids can take care of the room." The Mero sighed and motioned for the Twins to follow him. As the Twins moved past the Mero he tried to get as far away from their messy hands as possible.

"No touching anything until we get to the bathroom." he said when One was about to place his hand on the hall wall. One jerked his hand back at the Mero's words.

The Twins ran and laughed into the Merovingian's study office after being cleaned up. The Mero was still seeing to the room being cleaned. Two and One ran around the middle of the room trying to catch each other. After Two caught One by the coat, they fell onto the floor in a fit of childish laughter.

"Hey, wanna play with Daddy's phone?" One pushed Two off of him.

"Yeah!"

Both of them jumped up from the floor and ran to the huge wooden desk, One picking up the receiver.

"Maybe we can call Mummy." Two leaned on the desk.

As with all small children the phone seems to be the greatest fascination of all gadgets, especially the button part of it. When there are two kids such as the Twins running loose in a house, it's a good idea to keep phones up and away from their reach.

One began playfully pushing buttons on the phone's keypad, and stopped when a woman's voice came over the receiver.

"Two, there's a woman talking over this thing." One whispered while listening to the woman talk.

"What's she saying?"

"I dunno. Something about 'plummers'."

"What's a 'plummer'?"

"Someone who picks plums I guess." One shrugged.

 _If you need a plumber, press 2_ the voice said.

"Ow! What's that for?" Two shoved One's hand away from him.

"The woman said if I need a 'plummer' to press Two, so that's what I'm doing. I'm pressing you."

"Well it hurts, so stop!" Two frowned at One.

 _If it's an emergency, press 4_ the voice continued.

"She says if it's an emergency, press four. Press four on what?" One looked at Two.

"Try the four on the phone here." Two said while pressing the four on the phone's base.

 _Thank you for choosing N.E.O. Plumbing. We'll send someone out right away!_

The phone clicked and hummed. One stared at the phone for awhile then turned to Two.

"Weird." he whispered before placing the receiver down.

"Let me try it." Two eagerly said while grabbing for the phone. One moved to the side and watched as Two began pressing buttons.

"You get anyone?" One asked. Two shook his head and placed the receiver back down then picked it up again. Before he could push more buttons, the Merovingian came into the room.

"Hey, hey. Put that down. That's not to play with." he softly scolded while taking the receiver out of Two's hand. He gently pushed the Twins to the side and sat down in the huge chair behind the desk. The Twins came up to the desk and leaned on it and watched the Mero look over the papers scattered all over it. Two fiddled with a stack of papers while One played with the stapler. The Mero rolled his eyes and sighed.

"Don't you two have anything else to do?" he said.

"No, we're bored." One replied, still punching the stapler.

"Yes we are." Two sighed.

"Bored? You shouldn't be. Looks like to me you've found many interesting ways to entertain yourselves lately."

The Mero watched in silence as the Twins mulled around and whispered to each other. He couldn't help but shudder at the thought of what they might be planning next. Before long, they both took off running out of the door. He could hear as their laughter and giggling got farther and farther away down the hall. He sighed and went back to his paperwork.

~

The Merovingian woke up and glanced around at the butler standing in the doorway.

"I'm sorry. Must have dozed off. Yes, what do you want? Have the Twins blown up the west wing or something?" the Mero almost laughed.

"No, sir, it's about the plumbers."

The Mero's eyebrows perked. "What plumbers?"

"The plumbers standing outside, sir. They say that they traced a call that came from here. It was an emergency call."

"I didn't call for any plumbers." The Mero got up and followed the butler out and up to the front door where four-- maybe eight or ten--plumbers were standing around outside, waiting.

"What is all of this?" the Mero looked at all the men standing around.

"We traced a call from here. Sounded urgent." one of the plumbers said.

"I didn't call for any plumbers." The Mero glanced at the butler beside him. "There must have been some mistake."

"No mistake, sir. The call came from here."

While the Mero talked it over with the plumbers, One came running up beside him and tugged violently on his shirt.

"Daddy"

"What is it, One?" the Mero, frustrated, turned to the small twin. "Can't you see I'm busy?"

"Two dropped his razor in the toilet." One innocently said.

"What?"

"We were cleaning off our razors from when we got paint on them earlier, and Two accidentally dropped his and it went in the toilet."

The Mero groaned and rolled his eyes then smiled at the plumbers, who were looking rather puzzled by the whole incident.

"Kids. You gotta love 'em." He smiled wider while pushing One in front of him. "C'mon, we'll get it out."

The Mero turned to the butler. "I don't care what you do, just get those plumbers out of here."

It was a hard struggle, but the Mero finally got Two's razor out and cleaned. By the time everything was over, the Mero was about to lose it all. The Twins sensed it too.

"We'd better get out of here." One whispered to Two, while watching the conversation between the Mero and one of the maids.

"He's very angry this time." Two said.

"Let's go exploring the house. He'll never find us if we do that." One suggested.

"Yes, let's do. We can come back later after Daddy's calmed down."

Both Twins turned and took off down one of the halls they had never been down before and hoped the Mero hadn't seen them.


	6. A Rumble with Vlad

It had been several hours since the plumber incident, and the Merovingian had been all over looking for the Twins and had found neither one of them. For the first time since he had created the Twins, he was starting to get concerned. There were certain places in the chateau that weren't safe for young kids to be at, such as the dungeon and the place where most of his vampires stayed. He glanced at his watch. Any time now, Persephone would be back from town. What was she going to say when the Twins weren't here to meet her. The Mero walked out into the hall and started toward the places that the Twins shouldn't be to hunt for them there. Knowing the Twins it was a very good chance that they wandered off there, whether dangerous or not.

~

The Twins quietly crept down the long dark hallway that was lit only by the soft glow of small candles that hung on the walls. None of them knew which way they had come from for the darkness swallowed their path, making every direction look the same.

"I'm scared." Two sniveled, his voice echoing off of the walls. One was scared too, but he didn't want to say anything. Several shattered mirrors hung on the walls they passed by while many weapons, swords, and knives hung on the rest of the walls.

"I'm beginning to wish that we had stayed and let Daddy yell at us in French." Two shuddered.

"Yeah, me too." One agreed.

After a long and creepy walk, the Twins came to an open room on the right and walked in. It was a huge room, having very little furniture and a tall ceiling, like many of the other rooms did. The only light came from the sun shining through two huge stained glass windows to the left. The two Twins walked into the middle of the room and looked around them.

"Where are we?" Two said while looking up at the tall ceiling. His voice echoing.

"I don't know, but it's cool." One giggled.

Two playfully tugged on his brother's hair and giggled when One started to run after him. Their laughing, giggling and the sound of their boots on the hard floor echoed in the hugeness of the room. They tumbled over one another and started to wrestle. The game lasted a good while until a presence was felt in the room. The Twins stopped their laughing and playing and slowly looked up. They jumped and backed up, Two stumbling over One's legs. The figure in front of them was tall, slender, dressed in black clothing, and had raven black hair that came to his shoulders. His dead white pale face and hands were the only things that stood out from his dark and creepy appearance. Where he or it had come from was unknown. There were several dark corners of the room so he could have been lurking there and came out into the open to see what all the noise was about. Wherever it had come from, the Twins didn't really care. All they knew is that they wanted to get out of the room as quickly as they could and away from the being in front of them. They tried to move, but the fear they felt wouldn't allow them to move. The dark figure walked slowly toward them, coming closer with each step he took. The Twins crawled backwards toward the entrance they had come through, all the time keeping their eyes on the stranger. Instead of going out of the room, though, the Twins backed up against the wall. They quickly stood up and pulled out their razors in defense. The strange being wasn't fazed by it, and instead continued walking toward the two small twins. One wasn't sure but he thought he saw a sneer form on the being's dark lips when he saw them pull out their razors. One lost his fear and started to run toward the creature. The creature dodged One, causing him to run forward past him. The dark being turned from One and looked at Two and smiled evilly. Two twirled his razor trying to scare his enemy, but somehow he didn't think it worked. The being stood silently and stared at Two as if he wasn't very impressed. One started twirling his razor too, coming at the being from the other side. The stranger looked from One to Two and never moved from the spot he stood in. Two, losing his patience, ran at the being and kicked him with a karate kick and punched him with his fist before backing up against the wall again out of harm's reach. The stranger didn't move a muscle.

Suddenly the creature, without warning, grabbed onto One and flung him at Two like a bowling ball. Both Twins tumbled over each other while trying not to land on one of their razors. They both looked up at the stranger who was now towering over them. The Twins backed up against the wall as the dark being loomed over them, stretching his long pale fingers out to them. The Twins grabbed each other and began to whimper while sliding down the length of the wall all the way down to the floor again and huddled together at the feet of their enemy. Two's chest heaved and he started to cry as the stranger's long black nails started to touch his shoulder. The being quickly latched tightly onto Two's arm. He screamed and scrambled to get away and buried his face in his brother's coat. One grabbed his razor and slashed the being's hand to make him let go. The creature yelped in pain and drew back, then violently snatched One's arm and forced the razor out of his hand by baring his long black nails into One's skin. The being sneered, his dark lips curling upward revealing a set of vicious pointed teeth.

"Vlad!" a voice called out.

Startled, the stranger looked up, his black hair brushing against his white cheeks.

"Leave them alone. You aren't going to torture anyone today."

It was the Merovingian.

The dark pale figure let go of One's arm, turned and walked silently away into the darkness of the room's corners, leaving the Twins with the Mero.

"It's okay, he's gone. Although you did pick quite a rough one to tangle with. Vlad is known for torturing his victims before bringing them to me. You're fortunate I came along when I did." The Mero bent down and tried comforting the Twins, picking up their razors and handing them to the two.

"Wh-who was he?" One stuttered.

"That was Vlad, leader of the vampires. Come on now, we've got to get you back to where you belong."

"He's scary." Two softly said. The Mero smiled.

"It's best to stay away from him. Remember that, okay?"

The Twins nodded in unison.

"Why does he want to torture people before he brings them to you?" One asked.

"That's just Vlad for you. Now let's go. Persephone will be back any minute."

The Mero pushed the Twins out the door then turned to Vlad who was standing on the other side of the room watching everything. Vlad didn't say anything, but exchanged a cold silent glance with the Merovingian. The Mero turned, closed the door of the room and followed the Twins down the long dark hallway.


	7. The New Toys

Persephone had returned and the Twins jumped up and down in front of her trying to get a hug. She picked up one at a time, kissed and hugged him. The Merovingian stood to the side and watched.

"Have you two been good?" she said.

The Twins turned to look at the Mero.

"If you count them drawing on the walls, calling the plumbers while playing with the phone, and nearly getting themselves killed by Vlad being good. Yeah I guess you could say they've been." The Mero answered for the Twins.

Perse looked up.

"Vlad? How did they run into him?" she was concerned.

"It's a long story of which I'll tell you later."

Perse turned back to the Twins.

"Look what I have for you." she said while pulling two things from one of the bags she held. She gave one to each child.

"What is it?" One asked.

"It's called a Furby." Perse replied. "Here try it. I've already put batteries in them." Perse took the toy and turned it upside down to wake it up. The small owl looking thing made a noise and opened its eyes then started speaking in another language. One jumped back in fright.

"That thing's alive!" He said while looking over Two's shoulder. Two only stared.

"No it's not. It's just a toy." Perse giggled at One's reaction. "See, you can pet it." Perse ran her hand down the toy's back and it made a purring noise.

The Mero only rolled his eyes. He could have created something that was better than that crazy looking thing. In fact he already had made something better, the Twins. Perse set the Furby on the floor and started to fiddle with it to get the Twins interested. She jarred it, rubbed it, pressed its stomach, and turned it upside down, making it purr, laugh, and make all kinds of strange noises. Two woke his Furby up and got in on the fun. One only stood and stared at the two chattering creatures.

"They're creepy." One softly said while continuing to stare.

For once the Merovingian had to agree with One. They were creepy to him too. He shuddered while watching Perse play with them with Two.

"Now you take them and run along." Perse picked up the Furbies and handed them to the Twins. Both Twins ran off down the hall, the laughing and giggling Furbies could still be heard as they went.

"Why on earth did you get such creepy toys for those two?" The Mero shook his head as Perse approached him.

"They aren't creepy. They're cute." she smiled.

"Cute? Bah! Such annoying voices too." the Mero continued to grumble.

"Does this mean the Twins can't keep them?"

"They can keep them just so long as they keep them away from me!" The Merovingian stomped away.

A little while later found the Merovingian walking into The Great Hall where two huge staircases came down on both sides of the room. He stopped in front of one of the flights of stairs and rattled the newspaper he held in his hands.

"I can go down faster than you!"

"Uh uh!"

The Mero looked up from his reading and listened. No other sounds. He shrugged and went on reading.

"Look out below!" a voice shouted. The Mero turned and saw one of the twins sliding down the banister towards him.

Before he could get away, the twin slammed into him, knocking him to the floor with the twin on top of him.

"Don't you kids ever quit?" The Mero fought to get up. "Go pester Cain and Abel for once!" Mero grabbed the twin on him and set him on the floor before getting up. The Mero brushed off his robe and glanced around the huge room.

"Where's the other one?"

"One's coming down the other banister." Two pointed toward the other flight of stairs. The Mero's eyes widened as he saw a streak of silver come sliding down the banister. Not realizing what he was doing, he ran and caught the twin before he hit the hard floor or slammed into the huge statue at the base of the stairs.

"Let's do that again!" One giggled in the Mero's hands. Just then Perse happened to be walking through the room.

"That's sweet, honey. Nice to see you playing with the Twins for once." she said before disappearing out the door again. The Mero grumbled under his breath and looked down at the twin he held.

"Where are those things Perse gave you? Why aren't you playing with them?"

"We are playing with 'em. Look." One pointed at the stairs where two wobbling balls of fluff were hopping down, one stair at a time.

"We modified them and now they can walk!" Two giggled.

The Mero's eyes widened more at the sight of the Furbies actually walking. Not only did the Twins have a fascination for guns and sharp objects, but the Mero also found out that they had a passion for fiddling with things, especially electronics, and making anything into a destructive weapon. Once the Mero had turned on the DVD player and it had blown up. Turns out that the Twins had played with it, changing it into an explosive device, which was triggered to go off when the power button was pressed.

"What else did you do to those things?" he said while he eyed the horrid fluff balls slowly coming toward him.

"We made them to walk." One said.

"I know, but what else did you do to them?"

"Nothing." Two replied.

"Are you sure?"

The Twins only looked at the Mero. Merovingian finally placed One down and continued to stare at the Furbies. When they reached the bottom of the stairs, they started toward him. He backed up a little. One of the Furbies, a black and white one, came at him and bumped into his foot.

"Dah doo-ay wah!" the creature said as it stopped in front of the Mero. He looked down at it then reached to pick it up. After grabbing hold of the soft object, the Mero yelped in pain and dropped the Furby.

"That thing shocked me!" he exclaimed while shaking the tingling from his hands.

"Oops! Forgot to tell you about that." both Twins snickered.

The Merovingian grumbled while trying to contain his flaring temper that wanted to show. The other Furby, whose color was green and yellow, sat a few feet away and laughed and giggled, its ears moving up and down.

"Merovingian so funny!" it said aloud. The Mero jumped back.

"That thing said my name." he stuttered in shock.

"Yeah, we reprogrammed them too." both Twins said together.

"Mero, Mero, Mero." The Furby said over and over while laughing. The Mero turned pale.

"Mero, Mero, Mero, Mero." The Furby continued to taunt and laugh.

Getting tired of hearing the toy's annoying laughter, the Merovingian walked over and slapped the toy in the face, causing it to fall backwards.

"You shouldn't have done that." Two softly said.

"Why?" The Mero turned to the Twins. They pointed to the toy.

The Furby got up on its own and started growling and snarling.

"Me no like Mero now." it said through its growling. The Mero stepped back, turned and ran out of the room before the creature had a chance to do anything.

"Daddy's going to play hide and seek!" Two shouted while getting up from the floor. "C'mon!"

As the Twins ran off in the direction the Mero had gone, the two Furbies followed behind them.

"Shut the door!" the Mero shouted at Perse coming in. She quickly slammed the door shut behind her.

"What's wrong?" she asked.

"Lock it! Lock it good!" he said. Perse did as he wished.

"What's going on?"

"Those Twins and those horrid toys you bought for them are what's going on."

"Those harmless toys still bothering you?" she sighed.

"Harmless toys? They aren't harmless anymore. Do you know what those Twins have done to them? They've turned them into walking monsters that know how to say my name! Goodness knows what else they've reprogrammed them to do."

"The Furbies are theirs so they have a right to do whatever they want with them." Perse seated herself on the sofa across from the Mero.

"Yeah, but before I know it those little furry beasts will be throwing razor blades at me or something."  
Perse shook her head as if she didn't believe her husband.

"I'm telling you the truth! When I picked one of them up, it shocked me. Then after I hit one of them it got back up and started growling at me."

Before Perse had a chance to speak, a slight knock was heard at the door. She gave the Mero a glance and walked over to open the door. In walked the Twins, carrying the Furbies in their hands. The Merovingian jumped up from his chair and started backing up and away from the two.

"Keep them away!" he stuttered, nearly tripping over an ottoman.

"These things aren't going to hurt you." Perse laughed while taking one of the Furbies from the Twins' hands. She ran her hand down its back and it made a purring sound.

"See? It's harmless."

She handed the Furby back to the twin who had been holding it.

"Now you two go play and leave Mero alone. Okay?" Perse said while running her hand down the twin's dreadlocks.

The Twins nodded and smiled before walking out of the room. The Merovingian sighed and relaxed once the Furbies and the Twins were out of sight.


	8. A Sticky Situation

After a long talk, some of it getting very loud and in French, about the Furbies, the Merovingian and Persephone walked out of the room. The Twins watched from a distance as both the Mero and Perse walked down the hall, all the while in deep conversation. One looked at Two and the two of them went into the room where their 'parents' had been. They walked quietly and carefully around the huge room for awhile, looking over the many knickknacks setting on the tables and shelves. Before long, One happened to open up a drawer to one of the tables and drew out a bottle of glue. Not knowing what glue is, One opened the bottle up and smelt. He wrinkled his nose at the stench then carried it over to Two, who was playing around with a portable CD player and headphones that had been lying in one of the elaborate padded chairs.

"Smell of this stuff." One said while handing the bottle of glue to Two. Two took it and sniffed before jerking the bottle away from his face.

"Eeew! What is it?"

"I dunno. I found it over there in that drawer." One pointed across the room to the table. Two put down the headphones and CD player on the table beside the chair and stood up.

"Ooops! I dropped it." Two struggled to get hold of the bottle of glue again. Some of its contents spilled out onto the seat of the rich looking chair. The Twins looked in curiosity, One poking at the glue with his finger.

"It's sticky!" he exclaimed.

"Looks like honey." Two said while smelling it again. "But it sure doesn't smell like it." He wrinkled his nose again at the foul odor.

"Maybe it's invisible paint!" One said.

"I'll see if it is." Two dipped his finger in the glue bottle and climbed up onto another chair and took the CD's headphones from the table. He smeared some of the glue onto the ear pieces and laid it back down while reaching for a piece of paper to wipe his hand off with. His hand came in contact with a magazine setting off to the side, but before he could pick it up it stuck to the finger he had the glue on.

"What's wrong?" One asked while watching Two struggle to get the magazine off his hand.

"I don't know. It's stuck to my hand!"

One grabbed hold of the magazine and pulled it off, ripping it in the process and pulling off one of Two's rings. One fell back onto the floor and held up the magazine with the glue on it. The magazine was now stuck to his hand. One grabbed it and pulled it off and struggled to make it let go of his right hand.

"Help me get this thing off." One whimpered after failing to get the magazine off. Two rolled off of the chair, tumbling onto the floor and into One.

"Ow! Watch where you're going." One grumbled while pushing his brother off of him. As Two rolled off, his long trench coat hit the bottle of glue that had been setting on the floor, causing the rest of the glue to spill onto the carpet.

"Hold still." Two said while grabbing the magazine and jerking it away from One's hand. He threw it across the room.

"There. We'll never touch that again." Two sighed.

"Here's your ring." One handed Two the ring he had pulled off. Two took it and slipped it over his small, dark nail tipped finger and positioned it like it should be.

"C'mon, let's go explore some of the other rooms." One finally said after watching Two put his ring back on. One jumped up and started for the door, but stopped when he heard the Mero coming toward it.

"Daddy's coming!" He quietly whispered, running back to Two. "We've got to hide."

The Twins jumped up and ran over behind the chairs and hid behind the window drapes. Just as they hid themselves, the Merovingian came in and walked over to the chairs. He sighed in frustration then sat down in the chair Two had spilled the glue in. He ran his hand through his hair and reached for the headphones to the CD player and placed them on his ears. After pressing a few buttons, the Mero leaned back in the chair and closed his eyes. Soft French music was always good to listen to after a hard day. The Twins peeked out from behind the drapes and looked at each other.

"Watch this." One whispered while snickering. He slowly walked out from behind the curtain and up to the table and reached for the CD player's volume control. It was hard to do since the table was somewhat tall and he was short. After finding it, he flipped it up as far as it would go before dashing off and behind the curtain again. The Mero yelled and jumped up, fumbling around for the player. He turned the volume down and looked around the room for what had caused it. Seeing nothing, he leaned back again and closed his eyes.

"Do it again." Two giggled. One, grinning, made his way over to the table and pushed the volume up. The Mero jumped and fumbled, again, for the player, this time stopping the CD and reaching for the headphones. The headphones wouldn't budge. The Merovingian grabbed onto them and tried gently to take them off, but they were fastened tight to his ears. He started to get up, but found that his pants were also stuck tight to the seat of the chair. He grabbed the armrests and tried pulling himself out, but it was no use.

"Persephone!" the Mero shouted at the top of his voice. He tried again to get up, but found that he took the chair with him when he tried standing and sat back down for the weight of the chair was too much to drag or lift. To add more confusion, the CD player rolled off of the table and nearly jerked his ears off before coming loose from the headphones.

"PERSEPHONE!" The Mero shouted louder this time. Grumbling in French, he tried prying his pants loose.

"What is it?" Persephone finally came into the room. She stopped and looked in wide-eyed wonder at her husband. She couldn't contain herself and burst out laughing at such a sight as what was before her. The Merovingian stood in his underwear, his pants half coming down and stuck to the chair, and earphones on.

"Will you stop laughing and help me?" The Mero roared. Persephone, still laughing, walked over and tried to get the Mero's pants undone, but found that it was a lot harder than she had expected.

"I think we're going to have to cut them loose." She finally said after a hard struggle. The Mero sat on the floor, put his feet on the chair and tried pulling his pants loose, but they were determined not to come off.

"How in the world did you ever manage this?" Perse said with a slight laugh.

"Persephone, if I knew that I would tell you." The Mero sighed before giving his pants another good yank which sent him sprawling backwards onto the floor.

"What about the headphones?"

"They're stuck to my ears!" The Mero's eyes widened and his nose flared.

"You aren't serious."

"Yes I am."

Perse walked over and grabbed the earphones and tried pulling, but stopped when the Mero made noises in French that told her it hurt to pull on them.

"I do believe this house has gremlins in it!" The Mero shouted, again pulling on his pants. "It's no use, Perse. They aren't coming loose." The Mero sighed and tried standing up. Once he was up and standing in the middle of the floor with nothing on but his shirt, socks, shoes and underwear, he gave his pants a good kick before going off speaking in French. He stopped and looked at Perse and she turned toward the window at the giggling that was heard coming from there. Perse walked over and pulled back the curtains revealing the Twins. The Twins gasped, backed up next to the wall and cowered.

"We're sorry." One whimpered.

"Yes we are!" Two added.

Perse grabbed One by the arm and jerked him out into the open and then grabbed Two, but she soon found that the curtain followed Two. Perse stopped and looked at Two's hand.

"It's stuck and I can't get it loose." He softly said, wriggling his hand to try and loosen it. Perse let go of Two's arm and tried prying his hand from the curtain, and, like Mero's pants, it was stuck tightly too.

"Mero, what are we going to do?" Perse sighed while walking over to her husband. Two followed, but was stopped when the length of the curtain ran out. Frustrated and on the verge of crying, he gave it one quick jerk. With a pop, pop, pop the curtain rings flew in every direction, and the curtain fell to the floor. Two walked over to Perse, dragging the curtain along. She looked down at him and the curtain then looked at the Mero.

"That's one strong child." She softly said. The Mero said nothing, but instead coldly stared at the Twins.


	9. Dragracing... Twins Style

When finally getting everyone and everything unstuck, the Merovingian felt like he needed a medal for it all. In order to get Two's hand unstuck from the curtain without hurting the young twin, the Mero had to give him his phasing power back. That resulted in him having to give One's phasing back too, to keep peace. With the matter of the Twins out of the way, the Mero had gone off to some other part of the chateau to have some of his henchmen help him get the earphones off of his ears while the maids and servants dealt with his pants and the chair. After recovering from the whole incident, the Merovingian felt like strangling the two youngsters, but Perse wouldn't let him come anywhere near them until he had cooled off.

It was a good hour or so before the Merovingian came out of his study. He quietly walked into the room where Perse was sitting on a sofa, the Twins asleep beside her. One had his head resting on her lap while Two was lying stretched out between One's back and the sofa pillow. Both had their eyes closed, Two sucking his thumb. Perse had a book in her right hand while her left hand was busy stroking One's silver dreadlocks. The Mero cleared his throat and Perse looked up from her reading. A grandfather clock chimed from another part of the room.

"See? They can be quiet." Perse whispered, running the tip of her finger gently down One's cheek. The twin twitched his closed eye and sleepily placed his small hand up to rub away the tickling feeling before letting his hand drift back down. He slowly opened his eyes in sleep then closed them again before yawning.

"I'm going to town for awhile." The Merovingian mumbled.

"Why don't you take the Twins with you? I'm sure they'd love to go." Perse suggested. The Mero's eyebrows raised at the suggestion.

"I think not! I'm going there to get away from everything here. You think I'd want them tagging along?"

"Shhhhh. You'll wake them up." Perse looked down at the Twins. Two twitched his nose as he slept. "The poor dears are all worn out."

"They're worn out? What about me! They weren't the ones glued to a chair."

"Two got glued to the curtain."

The Merovingian and Persephone stared at each other for awhile.

"How can I take them with me when they're asleep?" The Mero finally said, breaking the long silence.

"You can wake them up you know." Perse patted One on the shoulder.

After a bit of protesting from the Merovingian, he finally gave in to taking the Twins with him to town. The Twins scampered out into the garage as the Mero made his way to one of the many cars. He would have had his chauffeur to drive him, but he wanted to go alone this time and drive himself. The Twins found it fun to run around and hide between the many parked cars. The Mero sighed and yelled for them to come over to the car he was going to take. Both giggled as they ran up to the Mero's side and stopped.

"Now you two watch yourselves." The Mero glared down at the two. "Get in." He motioned to the backseat of the vehicle. They had seen pictures of cars and even had toy ones, but this was the first time, since they had been created, that the Twins had actually ridden in a car. Both of them stood a moment and stared into the backseat then turned to look at the Mero.

"Get in! I don't have all day."

The Mero bent over and picked up One and placed him in the seat then picked up Two and sat him down beside his brother.

The Mero, then, pulled the seatbelts over the Twins and locked them in place. After making sure the Twins were secure; the Mero slammed the door and got into the driver's seat.

"Where are you taking us?" Two muttered softly.

"Who knows? I may decide to drop you off somewhere in town." The Mero chuckled. Of course he was only joking and he knew it, but knowing kids they believe everything you say and take it seriously. A few seconds of silence followed and the Mero turned around in his seat. The Twins were gone. He nervously looked around the garage and opened the car door again.

"One? Two?" he glanced around and spotted the Twins trying to open the door that led back inside the chateau.

"Come here you rascals." The Mero grunted while picking up the two and carrying them back to the car. The Twins kicked and screamed in fear and almost started to cry.

"We don't want you to drop us off and leave us!" they both sniveled at once while struggling to get out of the Merovingian's arms.

"I was only joking with you. I wouldn't leave you anywhere."

One grabbed hold of the door frame of the car and placed his foot on it too, to keep the Mero from putting him in the backseat. The Mero pried One's fingers away, shoved his foot away and tried putting him in, but One again latched onto the door's frame. Two grabbed onto part of the door and held on too.

"Now see here! Both of you cut that out and behave yourselves. I'm not going to leave you in town. Forget I said anything about it."

"You promise you won't leave us?" One looked up at the Mero.

"I promise. Now let go and get in the car!"

One let go of the car and so did Two, allowing the Merovingian to place them in the backseat again and buckle them up. The Mero grumbled in French as he started and revved up the car's motor and made his way out of the garage.

Once out on the road everything looked like it was going to be fine. The Twins were actually quiet and still. Several times they curiously looked out of the window at the passing scenery and talked in whispers to each other.

"I wanna drive." One of them suddenly blurted out.

"Can we drive?"

"Please?" both Twins said at once.

"No. You can't drive. You're too young." The Mero said without turning around.

"We are not too young!" said Two.

"We know how to drive." One added.

"Enough! You aren't driving and that's it."

Both Twins crossed their arms and leaned back against the seat and pouted quietly for the rest of the trip.

In town, the Mero stopped the car for a red light. The Twins looked out of the window at the line of empty cars parked on the side of the road in front of the sidewalk and stores. One turned to Two and grinned. Two smiled and nodded in return. When the light turned green the Mero sped off, not realizing that the Twins had phased from the backseat.

"How do you start this thing?" One said while searching the dashboard of one of the parked cars.

"Is there a key there somewhere?"

"No."

"Then hot-wire it."

"What?"

"Hot-wire it. That's what Cain taught me." Two phased into the front of the car and within a few minutes the engine roared to life. Two reappeared into the seat next to One.

"See? Nothin' to it."

"Now what do I do?"

"You press on one of those things down there in the floor and move this stick thing."

After a few minutes of fiddling with everything, the car suddenly took off down the street at breakneck speed. One grasped the wheel and jerked it to the right to avoid hitting another car, then jerked it to the left. Several cars spun off of the road and onto the sidewalk to keep from slamming into the crazy driven car. One giggled and laughed at the fun he was having, but Two was about to panic from his brother's driving.

"Watch out for that car!" Two shouted while slumping down in his seat. One swerved to the left again. After finding out that he was still alive, Two nervously looked up, but quickly closed his eyes again when he saw One move the car too close to the curb and nearly hit a mailbox. Several pedestrians dove into one of the stores to get out of the way of the runaway vehicle. By now, police sirens were heard coming in the distance.

"I think I'm starting to get the hang of this." One laughed. Two glanced at his brother and rolled his eyes.

"Can you imagine how much trouble we're going to be in if Daddy catches us?" Two said, just before closing his eyes again.

"Who says he's going to catch us?"

At that moment, the Twins' car came to a jolting stop after slamming into the backend of a car in front of them. Two slid out of his seat and into the floorboard from the impact. It took the Twins a few minutes to realize what had happened. One shakily got up and looked forward. The Merovingian was standing beside the car they had run into while frantically waving his hands around. One's eyes widened.

"Two, I think we'd better get out of here."

"Why?" Two groaned while trying to get up.

"I just flattened Daddy's car."

Two's head spun around just in time to see the Merovingian coming toward their car. Several police cars came up to the accident and surrounded the cars, taking the Mero's attention off of the Twins. One of the officers started talking with the Mero, the Mero pointing at the backend of his car.

"Has he seen us yet?" Two whispered to One, who was crouching down in the driver's seat.

"Are you kidding? If he had seen us we wouldn't have our hides on us now." One peeked up over the steering wheel. "Uh oh."

"What?"

"He saw me!" One quickly ducked down again. "And he looks awful mad."

"I wish I was still asleep on the couch beside Mummy." Two whimpered.

The door clicked and opened to reveal the Merovingian and a police officer. One smiled, but the Mero didn't look impressed.

"I'm awfully sorry, officer. Believe me, I do not know how this happened. I'm willing to pay for the damages." The Mero firmly snatched One out of the car. Two looked up at the Mero's frowning face, which told him he'd better get out too.

"Get over there by the car." The Mero said through gritted teeth while firmly shoving the Twins in the direction of his car.


	10. Raid on the Electronics Store

"Are these children yours?" the police officer asked the Mero while he eyed the Twins with curious eyes.

"Of course they're mine. Is there anything wrong with a father taking his children out?"

"No, sir, nothing wrong at all. It's just," the officer once more glanced in the Twins' direction. "I've never seen children that look like that before."

"You haven't seen twins before?" the Mero crossed his arms.

"I wasn't referring to that. Of course I've seen twins. It's just that," the officer's voice trailed off before he cleared his throat. "Okay, never mind. Now about the cars."

Both the Merovingian and the police officer turned to the two cars that looked like a couple of crumpled up coke cans. The backend of the Mero's car was badly scrunched up from where the car the Twins had been driving had slammed into it. The Twins' car looked about the same only in the front. Both men walked around while looking over the damages. The Mero touched the taillight of his car, the red plastic piece falling off afterward. He sighed and walked over to the officer who was busy filling out paperwork.

"Well. We won't know anything until we find and contact the owner of the vehicle. Until then I'd appreciate it if you would fill out these." The officer handed the Mero several papers and then a pen. He sighed and looked them over then looked up at the Twins who were leaning against the car in silence.

After filling out the papers, the Mero handed them back to the officer and walked over to where the Twins were standing. Two started to run, but was stopped by the Mero.

"And just where do you think you're going?" The Mero turned the scared twin back around and pushed him toward his brother. Two didn't answer. The Mero sighed.

"What am I going to do with you two?"

The Twins lowered their heads.

"The one who is found guilty of driving the car and coming up with the idea of stealing and driving it will be punished severely when we get home."

The Twins raised their heads.

"Now, whose idea was it?"

Two immediately pointed to One, One pointed at Two. Both twins looked at each others' accusing in surprise.

"I did not do it, you did! It was your idea." Two shouted at One.

The Mero rolled his eyes and bent down on one knee next to Two.

"Two," he began.

"He's not Two, I am!" One interrupted.

"No. You're One." The Mero said, surprising the young child.

"Yeah, One, I'm Two."

"Ok, Two," The Mero began again.

"Yes?" both twins said in unison.

"You both can't be Two!" The Mero looked at one and then the other, getting a little confused himself.

"I'm Two." One said.

"No you aren't, I am!" Two frowned.

"I know what you're trying to pull here." The Mero glared. "I'll have you know that I can tell you two apart. I created you, you know."

The Twins lowered their heads again.

"I'm Two! And I didn't drive the car." Two sniveled. "One did it and he scared me with his driving." Two's eyes became watery.

"Tattletale!" One shouted at his brother.

"I'm not a tattletale! It's the truth."

"Well you were with me when I did it so you're just as guilty."

"I wish I hadn't have done it now. You're the worst driver in the world." Two huffed.

"Oh, you're just a big baby. Frightened by anything."

"I am not a baby!" Two came toward One, but the Mero grabbed onto his coat to hold him in place.

"Are too."

"Am not."

"Are too."

"Am NOT!"

"ARE!"

"Now stop it both of you!" The Mero shouted over the screaming. He released Two and looked long and hard at both of them.

"He did it." Two said in a soft voice, again pointing to One.

"He helped." One pointed to Two.

"I've a good mind to punish you both." The Mero finally said.

"What did I do?" Two looked up in surprise. The Mero ignored Two and walked over to One.

"Get in the car." Was all he said. One slowly did what he was told--phasing into the front seat of the black car the Mero had driven. He looked out of the window at the Mero and Two. Knowing One was in deep trouble, Two smiled to tease him. One stuck his tongue out then sat down in the seat and pouted. Two turned and looked up at the Mero.

"We'll continue this when we get home." The Mero said without looking down at Two.

For awhile afterward, the Merovingian stood and stared at the setting sun in silence, Two restlessly standing beside him. The only sounds heard were the passing of the cars on the main road and the chatting and talking of the people walking by on the sidewalk. Two occasionally looked toward the car where One was. The Merovingian finally looked at his watch then turned.

"Come on and bring your brother. I want to catch the electronics store before they close for the night."

Two ran to the car and motioned for One to follow him and the Mero. One phased and appeared beside his brother and together all three walked to a small electronics store that was a short distance from where they were. The Mero pushed open the glass door and walked in, waiting for the Twins to enter behind him.

"Good evening." A smiling employee came up to the Mero. "Your order just came in this morning. I'll go get it for you." the man said before he disappeared into the backroom of the store. The Twins wandered around the small area and looked at some of the computers displayed on the shelves. While the Merovingian wasn't looking, One started punching the buttons on the computers that he could reach.

The Mero turned around, dropping what he held in his hands when he saw what was on the screens of the computers. Each computer that one of the twins had tampered with was now showing a scrolling green code. He nervously looked around the small store then hurriedly walked over to the Twins who were playing with another computer.

"Get away from those." He whispered while grabbed the arms of them both and pulling them over to the paying counter.

"Please! Stay right here and don't touch anything." The Mero pleaded. He walked back over to the computers and nervously tried to make the code disappear before the employee came back, but no matter what he did the code stayed. Just then, the employee returned with a box in his hands.

"Oh, cool looking screensaver." He said while nodding toward the Mero. The Mero stiffened for a moment then nodded.

"Yes, it is isn't it?"

"Here's your package. I think everything's here." The employee opened the box and started dragging out bits and pieces of something that the Mero had ordered. The Mero left the computers and slowly walked over to the counter and began looking over his merchandise.

Several men bursting into the small store suddenly interrupted the quiet atmosphere. There were three of them, each one being tall, dark, and wearing a black suit and a pair of black sunglasses. The first one, supposedly the leader, looked around until his eyes caught sight of the computers. The employee, the Mero and the Twins stood still and silent as they watched the guys. The Twins huddled behind the Mero's legs.

"C-can I help you?" the employee stuttered. The men didn't say anything. The leader of them slowly and gracefully walked over to the computers and started punching buttons until the scrolling code disappeared from the screen. He moved on to the next one and did the same until he had removed the code from each monitor. Finally he turned and looked in the Mero's direction then at the employee.

"We'll be going now." Was all he said, in a cold, slow, and deep voice before turning to the other two waiting by the door. In an instant the men were gone. The Mero and employee exchanged glances then continued what they were doing. The Merovingian knew who those guys were, but he didn't dare say anything to the 'human' in front of him so he had to act like he was as surprised as the other person was at the unusual incident.

"I'll have to be careful next time what kind of screensaver I put on strange computers out in a store." The Mero breathed.


	11. Theater Madness

"Can I count on you two being good from now on?" The Merovingian threw his package into the seat of the car before slamming the door. The Twins grinned at the Mero's question and shrugged their shoulders.

"There's a movie I'd like to see if I can see it without interruptions."

"A movie?" the Twins said together.

"Are we going to the theater, Daddy?" Two asked excitedly.

"Yes." The Mero placed his keys in his pocket.

"We'll be good!"

The Merovingian hesitated a minute at that sudden answer.

"We promise!" they both said together.

He knew it wouldn't last long as soon as they got into the theater, but he gave in anyway.

"Alright then, let's go."

The Twins started shouting and jumping at the Mero at once.

"And how many times have I told you not to call me daddy?"

The Twins' excitement died and both looked up at the Mero.

"I'm not your daddy! I may have created you, but you don't have to emphasize it."

Both twins stared silently. Two's lip began to quiver a little and One wiped away a tear from his eye.

"If you aren't our daddy, then who are you?" Two said through his tears. The Mero looked at the Twins and sighed. As much as he hated to admit, he actually felt sorry for the two.

"Okay, okay you can call me daddy if you want. After all I am your father, of sorts." The Mero cleared his throat. The Twins smiled and ran to the Mero and hugged his legs.

"Now let's get going."

A little later at the theater, the Mero led the Twins down a row of seats until they found three that were not occupied. Here he pushed the seats down and sat each twin in one of them.

"I don't want to hear one word out of either of you. Understand?" The Mero whispered. The Twins nodded. When everything looked like it was going to go normally, One's seat suddenly folded up on the poor child. Two watched as his brother fought to get out of it. "Help! The chair's trying to eat me!" One reached and yanked on the Mero's shirtsleeve. The Mero's eyebrows raised a little at the sight then he reached and helped One get out of his entanglement. After the chair incident, the Twins remained quiet and were surprisingly good, just as they had promised Mero. Both watched the movie or pretended to while moving restlessly in their seats every so often and looking curiously around them at the other people. It was clear that both of them were getting bored. Course the Merovingian didn't notice, he was too into the movie to notice anything around him. The Twins knew it too. One poked at the Mero's arm. He didn't move or look over. One poked his arm again, this time harder. The Mero still didn't move a muscle. One turned to Two and grinned. Two returned the grin.

Half way through the movie, the Merovingian looked over at the Twins. His face went rather pale and he could almost feel his heart stop. The seats that the Twins had been sitting in were empty. Forgetting the movie for the first time since it had started, the Mero frantically looked around the room the best he could in the dark. With no sign of the Twins, he got up and started making his way down the isle. One of the workers came toward him, carrying a flashlight in one hand.

"Sir?" the worker said in a whispered tone. "You're needed out in the lobby."

At the worker's words, the Mero rushed past and made his way into the lobby where chaos was in full force. It took the Mero a second to grasp what was happening around him. One was busy pulling off the movie posters from the walls while Two was terrorizing the poor woman behind the snack bar counter. Popcorn was coming out and flying everywhere from the popcorn maker, where Two had crammed it full while playing with it. Several times it exploded like a cannon, sending huge balls of corn into the air. The Mero dodged several kernels of wild corn before reaching the counter and snatching Two by the coat collar, catching some of his dreadlocks in the tight grasp. The little twin yelped in pain and squirmed to get down, but the Mero continued to hold him tight.

"One!" The Mero roared. One stopped and turned slowly toward the angry face of the Mero, which was as red as a tomato by now. "That does it! That absolutely does it! Outside, now!" The Mero pointed toward the front door. One phased and reappeared outside. Several people standing in the lobby at that time screamed at seeing One phase and ran into another part of the theater. The Merovingian, still holding Two tightly, turned toward the woman behind the counter.

"I'm sorry about all of this." He said before walking toward the door. Outside he let go of Two, who scrambled to One's side and hid behind his brother. They watched as the Mero silently breathed hard while glaring at the two, before breaking out shouting in French. Some people walking by slowed their walk and stared at the Mero then quickly walked on by as if they hadn't seen anything. For a good three or four minutes the Mero continued to shout and scold in French.

"And now that you two have managed to ruin my evening," The Mero said, suddenly switching to English. "We might as well go on home before anything else happens!"


	12. Home Again

Home once again. The Merovingian slammed the door and turned to the Twins.

"Alright, now that we're home, who was it that did that to my car?" the Mero glared. Two pointed to One and smiled. One frowned.

"You helped me! It's partly your fault too!" One shouted while pushing Two's hand away.

"Is not!" Two shouted back.

"Here, here. Stop that." The Mero snatched One's arm and picked him up. "You're coming with me."

"No!" One fought to get loose from the Mero's hands.

"Yes, you are."

"It's not fair!" One sniveled.

"Daddy, can I watch you punish him?" Two grinned while looking up at the Mero. Before the Mero could answer, One shouted to Two.

"You were the one who hot-wired the car."

The Mero stopped walking and turned to Two. Two's smiled dropped and he slowly looked at the Mero.

"Shut up, One." Two whispered under his breath.

"Is it true?" The Mero calmly asked. Two nodded. "Come on." The Mero grabbed Two's arm and dragged him along. They didn't go far, for Persephone came running up to them. She hugged and kissed Mero, then turned to One.

"Mero, what's going on here? Why has One been crying?"

"You don't want to know, trust me." The Mero sighed.

"How were my angels tonight?" Perse asked while bending down to kiss Two on the cheek.

"Go out in the garage and take a look, then come back in here and ask that question again." The Mero grumbled. Perse looked at him questioningly.

"Let me have One." Perse reached to take her baby.

"You leave him right where he is. I've had about all I can take from these two."

One's lip began to quiver a little then he reached for Perse.

"Mummy!"

"My darling!" Perse nuzzled One's nose with her own.

"Will you stop it? You're spoiling these two to no end."

Perse drew back and frowned before walking away toward the garage door. When she had disappeared, the Mero continued walking, the Twins protesting all the way.

"Mero, the car! Are you okay?" the words of Perse soon came from behind them. The Mero turned.

"I'm fine. Sad I can't say the same about the car."

"What happened?" Perse walked up to her husband.

"Your little 'angels' hijacked a parked car and rammed it into the back of me, that's what happened."

Perse looked at One then at Two.

"You wouldn't believe what all else happened."

"There's more?"

"Yes!" the Mero placed One on the floor next to Two. "You two go to your room. I'll be there in a few minutes." He glared. After the two scampered off, he told Persephone what all had happened.

"Now I'm off to punish them." The Mero said after finishing his story.

"Don't be hard on them." Perse touched the Mero's shoulder. He didn't pay any attention to her and continued walking.

The Merovingian violently jiggled the doorknob to the Twins' room.

"Open up this door right now!" he shouted. The knob clicked. He tried again, this time entering into the room and closing the door behind him. The Twins backed up against one of the beds and whimpered.

"Well, what do you have to say for all the trouble you caused?"

"You never let us do ANYTHING, Daddy!" said Two, before sniffing back a tear.

"That's because you'd blow up the house if I did."

The Twins and the Merovingian stared silently at each other for a few minutes.

"We're so mad we could, " both Twins said in unison, before pulling out their machine guns and pointing them at the Mero.

"Now don't be pointing those machine guns at me or I'll do worse than grounding you or taking your phasing power away!" The Mero said, shoving the guns away from him. Both twins let their guns fall to the floor then burst out crying. The Mero waited until both of them slowed their bawling, and then he picked up each one and placed them side by side onto the bed.

"Look at me." he said, putting his hand under Two's chin and lifting it up. The twin's pale face was now red and tearstained. "I don't mind you two destroying things. That's what I created you to do."

"Then why do you get after us when we do something bad?" One sniffed.

"Because I don't want you using your destructive powers on me and my house! You've got to learn to control your destroying urges."

The Twins looked down in silence. The Mero sighed.

"This time I'll go easy on the punishment, although I know I shouldn't."

The Twins looked up.

"What's our punishment going to be?" Two softly asked.

"You're going to go straight to bed without any supper."

The Twins didn't say a word but continued to listen to the Mero.

"The next time something like this happens, you two are going to see what my temper can do. Understand?"

The Twins nodded. The Mero turned and opened the door where Persephone was standing out in the hall, listening to the conversation.

"You may put them to bed now." The Mero said, before disappearing down the hall.


	13. The Storm

After supper, a terrible storm had settled in for the night. Persephone and the Merovingian sat in one of the elaborate living rooms of the chateau, the Mero reading the evening paper while Perse finished reading the book she had been reading that week. After a clash of thunder rolled by, Perse looked up from her book.

"What is it?" The Merovingian asked, noticing Perse looking at him.

"It's thundering."

"So?"

"You know what happened the last time a storm came."

The Mero put down the newspaper he had been reading.

"I don't understand. I didn't program them to fear anything."

Perse ignored the Mero's words and got up from her chair.

"Where are you going?" he asked.

"I'm going to see about the Twins."

Persephone gently pushed open the door to the Twins' room and quietly walked in. The flickering of the lightening could be seen around the window curtains. The soft glow of a nearby nightlight was the only comfort the small room had. Perse walked up to the side of one of the twins' beds and peered down at the sleeping child. She smiled and pulled the cover up over his shoulder. She turned to do the same to the other one across from him. Just when Perse turned to leave, a small voice called her back.

"Mummy,"

Perse turned to Two, who was now sitting up in his bed while holding a stuffed white teddy bear in one arm.

"What is it, Two?" Perse said, softly.

"I'm scared." Two hugged the stuffed bear tight to his chest and stuck his thumb in his mouth.

"It's only thunder, sweetie, it's not going to hurt you." Perse sat down on the bed next to Two and started running her fingers through his dreadlocked hair.

"I don't care, I'm still afraid."

"Look at One over there. He's not afraid. He's fast asleep like you should be." Perse looked at One who was curled up under the covers of his bed, holding a blanket next to his face. Two looked at his brother and shrugged his shoulders in a timid way. Perse smiled while she watched Two fiddle with the sheet, his silver silk pajamas shimmering in the dim light of the nightlight.

"Now you go to sleep." Perse leaned over and kissed Two's cheek and ruffled his hair before helping him settle back under the covers.

Couple of hours past without any more noise out of the Twins. The storm was just as strong now as it had ever been. The Merovingian and Persephone lay in their bed, talking about the Twins. The Mero was engrossed in a book while Perse was busy filing her nails.

"Mummy, Daddy!" a voice suddenly called out, after a huge clap of thunder. The Mero calmly looked at Perse out of the corners of his eyes.

"You going or am I?" he said, calmly.

"I'll go. You'll only get mad at him." Perse threw her covers off and walked out of the room. A few minutes later she came back into the room and got back in bed.

"Well?" The Mero turned a page of his book.

"Everything's okay."

"It better be. I want some sleep tonight." The Mero placed his book on the night table and turned out the light. Perse turned out her light too. When they both got settled another blast of thunder rolled, and again Two's voice came.

"Daddy, Mummy!"  
"I thought you said everything was okay." The Mero grumbled. Before he realized it, both twins ran into the room and jumped onto the bed. The Mero's head bounced up and down on his pillow as the Twins roughly made their way across the bed, in between him and Perse. A foot caught the Mero in his back and a hand caught him in the head.

"What goes on here!" His voice raised as he turned his head toward the scuffling. He reached and turned on the light.

The Twins stopped moving and stared.

"Persephone! Wha-what are they doing in our bed?"

"They're scared, Mero."

"Well that doesn't mean they have to sleep in here!"

"They're sleeping in here and that's that. Now turn the light back off." Perse pulled Two next to her.

"I thought Two was the one afraid of storms. Why is One in here?"

"I couldn't sleep because Two kept keeping me awake." One buried his face in his blanket.

"That's no excuse!"

"Now, honey, you know that I can't invite Two in here unless I invite One too. That wouldn't be fair, to leave the poor thing alone in that dark room."

"Dark room? Didn't we put a nightlight in there?"

"Yes, but it's still scary on a night like this." Perse rubbed One's back.

"Wait a minute. You said that you invited them in here?"

"Yes. I told them awhile ago that if Two got scared again they could come in here and sleep with us."

The Merovingian rolled his eyes and held back what he was about to say next. It was obvious that he was beaten. The Twins snuggled in between the Mero and Perse and were already about to fall asleep, Two next to Perse and One next to Mero.

"Alright, they can stay in here." He finally mumbled under his breath, before turning the light back out. Trying to get settled again, the Mero suddenly felt a sharp jab in his back. He turned around and felt in the darkness to see what it had been and found One holding something along with his blanket.

"One, what is this?" The Mero whispered while tugging on the object.

"It's my razor." One sleepily answered.

"Your razor! Why are you sleeping with it?"

"In case a monster comes to get me."

"One," the Mero began. "You do not sleep with a razor. Now let daddy have it." The Mero tried taking the weapon away from One, but the twin held tight to it.

"No! It's mine!" One shouted loud enough to startle Perse and Two.

"One, what's wrong?" Perse asked.

"Daddy's trying to take my razor away." One sniveled.

"Your razor?"

"Yes, his razor. He's here sleeping with it." The Mero griped.

"Is it open?" Perse asked, concerned.

"No, but it could fly open." He tugged on it more, but the child was determined not to let it go.

"Sweetie, give daddy the razor." Perse reached over and touched One's shoulder.

"No! It's to keep monsters away!"

"Monsters won't hurt you in here, dear, you're with us. Now give Daddy the razor."

One hesitated a few minutes then slowly let go of the razor, which the Mero took and placed on his night table. One pulled his blanket close to his face and pouted until he fell asleep.


	14. The Forgiveness Cake

Unknown to the Twins, Persephone had placed them back in their beds after they had fallen asleep and the storm was well over with. So early the next morning, before Persephone and the Merovingian were up, the Twins dressed themselves and made their beds by roughly pulling the sheets off and wadding them up in the most destructive and disorderly way possible. While appearing to be only three years old, the Twins' minds were a little more advanced than normal human kids' minds are at that age, because of them being programs. Because of their advanced minds, the Twins could think, reason, and understand certain things as adults would and get along fine on their own if they had to. It sometimes amazed the maids and butlers in the chateau at how well and fluently the Twins could speak while appearing to be so young. However, despite their advancements, they still acted like normal three-year-olds.

After gloating over their success of harassing their beds, the Twins sat in the middle of the floor for a long talk.

"Daddy was really mad last night." One whispered to Two, careful not to talk too loud.

"Yeah. We were fortunate to get out of that one in one piece."

"Why don't we do something to show him we're sorry?"

"Yeah! That's a good idea." Two smiled. "What do we do?"

One thought a moment.

"We could clean the chateau."

"Nah, the maids do that."

One thought some more.

"We could fix up his car."

"Are you kidding! We don't know how to fix a car."

One wrinkled his forehead. Two had a point. The car might look worse after they got through with it. One continued to think of more ideas. Before he could say anything, Two got an idea.

"Hey! I have an idea!" Two nudged One's knee. "We could fix him breakfast!"

"Great idea!" One smiled. "How hard can it be to cook?"

"Looks easy. I've seen the cooks do it many times."

"C'mon then." One got up and grabbed Two by the coat and pulled him along.

In the kitchen, the Twins looked around them at all the many tall counters. It was about an hour before the cooks and butlers and maids started breakfast, so the Twins had the whole place to themselves.

"Where should we start?" One asked.

"I dunno, but first we need to decide on what we're going to fix."

Both Twins thought a minute.

"It's got to be somethin' easy." Two said.

"The cooks always fix breakfast. Why don't we just fix somethin' little to go along with it?" One suggested.

"Yeah! That would be better."

"So, any ideas?"

Two thought some more.

"What about a cake?" Two finally said.

"Perfect! I've watched Mummy make one several times. It's the easiest thing to fix!"

"What do we do first?" Two watched as One ran to the pantry doors.

"We've got to make the cake. Then after that we make the frosting. First we've got to get things to make it with though."

In the pantry, One ran to a huge sack of flour, grabbed a cup that was down in it and pulled out a cup full.

"Here, take this and set it on the counter. I'll get the other stuff."

Two timidly took the cup of flour and did what One had told him to do. When he came back, One shoved another cup into his hand, this one being full of sugar. Two took it and set it beside the flour then came back. One again gave him another cup, full of cornmeal.

"Are you sure this is right?" Two looked at the cup of light yellow powder.

"I dunno. I can't remember how many cups of powdered stuff Mummy put in it. I wish Daddy had enhanced our reading skills. I can't make out what it says on the bag I got that out of. Guess we'll put it in the cake anyway."

Two rolled his eyes and walked into the kitchen to place the cup of cornmeal next to the other cups.

"Now we need butter and milk." One said, walking into the kitchen. He opened the huge fridge and struggled with reaching what he needed. He finally pushed a stool over and got up onto it and tried to lift the jug of milk. The jug proved too heavy for the young child, resulting in One dropping it. The jug burst as soon as it hit the hard floor, causing milk to splatter everywhere.

"Uh oh." Two mumbled, looking down at the mess. "What do we do now?"

"I saw some sponges in one corner of the pantry. We can get them and soak up enough milk to squeeze into a cup."  
Two ran into the pantry and came back out with a couple of sponges. Handing one of them to One, he got down on his knees and started mopping up the puddle of milk. One joined him.

"Go get a glass and we'll squeeze this out into it."

Quick as he had been told, Two came back with a glass. When the problem of the milk being easily solved, One continued getting the ingredients needed out of the fridge. He handed the butter to Two, who added it to the collection of stuff on the counter. Then he grabbed several eggs and handed them to Two also.

"Is that all?" Two asked, watching One close the fridge.

"I think so. Now we need bowls and spoons."

It was long and hard, but the Twins managed to gather everything they needed and soon had a bowl full of what they called 'cake batter'. Though, any resemblance between it and real cake batter would have been purely accidental. The Twins looked down at their achievement with satisfaction, One stirring it slowly.

"Now what do we do?" Two asked, wiping a smudge of flour from his cheek.

"Let's put some of this in it to give it flavor." One said, reaching for a small box with the label 'Red Pepper' on it.

"What is it?"

"I think it's salt."

"Salt's not red like that is it?" Two looked curiously at the red stuff One sprinkled in the batter.

One stopped and looked at it.

"Maybe it's food coloring then." One looked at Two and grinned. "We'll have a red cake!"

After getting the cake batter just right, the Twins struggled with getting it into the oven, but somehow managed the difficult task easier than they had expected. Now all that was left to do was to make the icing. One got out a clean bowl and started pouring ingredients into it, not realizing what half of the stuff even was. If it looked like what Persephone or one of the cooks had used, he poured it in.

"Give me that bottle there, would you?" One pointed to a bottle on the top shelf of one of the cabinets, a bottle having a label reading, 'Nitroglycerin'.

Two climbed onto the counter and grabbed the small bottle and handed it to one.

"This has got to be corn syrup." One said, opening the bottle's lid. Two wrinkled his nose as he watched One mix the liquid into the glob of goo in the middle of the bowl.

The cake was done, everything was going as planned. The Twins bounded into the dining room where the Merovingian was seated and reading the morning newspaper. One playfully pulled Two's dreadlocks and took off running and screaming around the table when Two started after him.

"Hey!" The Mero's voice snapped. The Twins stopped and looked in his direction. "That's enough. Now sit down and behave yourselves. I'm not in a mood to hear screaming at this hour of the morning."  
The Twins did as they were told. They nudged each other and whispered about the cake. The Mero peered at them from behind the edge of his paper.

"What are you two up to?" he calmly asked. Both Twins smiled innocently and shrugged their shoulders. At that moment, Persephone walked into the room and smiled when she saw the Twins. After giving each of them a kiss, she sat down at her place at the table.

"Daddy, can we be excused for a minute?" One said, gently touching Mero's arm.

"What for?" the Mero roughly turned a page of the newspaper.

"It's a surprise." Two grinned.

"Go on then." The Mero sighed and looked at Perse in a puzzled way. She smiled and shrugged, telling the Mero she had no idea of the Twins' plans.

"Daddy, we made this just for you." both Twins shouted together as they came back into the dining room. Between the two of them, they carried a small cake that badly leaned to one side. They placed it on the table in front of the Merovingian and giggled at his expression.

"It's to say we're sorry for all the trouble we caused yesterday." Two said, timidly. All the Mero could do was stare.

"We made it all by ourselves. No help at all from anyone."

The Mero slowly turned to look the Twins over.

"No help from anyone?" he finally got out, more whispered than anything. He turned to Persephone.

"I didn't program them with cooking skills." He gasped under his breath. Perse had to fight back a laugh.

"Don't you like it, Daddy?"

"Yeah, it's wonderful. Thanks a lot." The Mero forced a smile and ruffled both Twins' hair.

"If it tastes a little weird, don't worry it's probably just the soap that was still on the sponges we used to soak up the milk." Said Two. One nudged his side. The Mero's eyebrows raised.

"Perse, do I eat this?" The Mero whispered to Perse.

"If you don't they'll wonder why." She whispered back.

The Mero smiled again at the Twins and nervously picked up a knife and started cutting the cake.

"Aw, it's not red. I thought it'd be red." One sighed.

"What?" The Mero's head jerked up.

"Nothing."

The Merovingian placed a slice of the cake onto his plate and proceeded to eat a bite. Immediately after placing the bite in his mouth, his eyes widened. The fork he held fell to the floor and he grabbed onto Perse's arm.

"What's wrong, dear?" Perse asked. The Mero didn't say anything, but instead pointed at his mouth and gagged. While trying to reach for a glass and the silver flagon filled with water, he bumped the plate and the slice of cake onto the floor. Before he knew what had happened, a slight bang was heard and a puff of smoke came from where the plate had landed. Perse screamed and the Mero jumped up, nearly knocking the whole table over, while the Twins scattered for cover.

"Gahhh! I've been poisoned! What on earth was in that cake!" the Mero shouted after getting his glass of water and his voice back. He stared down at the singed mark on the carpet where the piece of cake had exploded. Perse shakily walked up to the table and stared down at the remaining cake then slowly looked at her husband.

"Did it taste good, Daddy?" One's voice came to the Mero's ears. He turned to see the Twins slowly making their way to the table again.

"I'm going to get both of you!" the Mero shouted. The Twins screamed and ran out of the dining room with the Merovingian in pursuit.


	15. Attack in the Attic

The Twins ran and phased and did all they could to throw the Merovingian off their trail. They couldn't understand why he was so mad at them. All they did was make a cake to show him they were sorry, and here he was madder than ever. They couldn't understand why the cake blew up either. All they knew is that it wasn't their fault the cake turned out that way.

Finally after seeing that the Mero was lost, the Twins turned and pushed open a dark door that led to the attic. Both were curious since they had never been in this part of the chateau before. In the attic, the Twins looked around them to find a barren and dusty room filled with tall candlesticks and a few old boxes and crates. At first they were a little hesitant about continuing forward. Not wanting to go back and face the Merovingian, they finally decided to go on and explore a little. At least until the Mero cooled down.

"It's creepy up here." Two mumbled.

"Yeah! Great isn't it?" One smiled.

The two cautiously walked around.

"I wonder why Daddy has so many candlesticks up here." One said, touching one of the tall sticks closest to him.

"Maybe it's because I use them."

Both twins jumped and turned toward the voice that had come from one of the dark parts of the attic. Vlad stepped out of the shadows, clutching a rope in his hands.

"V-Vlad!" Two stuttered before running over beside One.

"Yes, Vlad." Vlad sneered. "And here we meet again. Isn't this charming."

The Twins slowly backed away as Vlad came closer to them, all the time twisting the rope he held.

"We thought you were downstairs." said One.

"Just because I was downstairs doesn't mean I live there. Does it?"

The Twins shook their heads.

"It's a free place." Vlad continued to twist the rope. "I can wander around if I feel like it, just like you two can.

If I find a room I like, I may just stay in there for awhile."

"You aren't going to hurt us are you?" One asked.

Vlad took the rope in one hand and snapped it like a whip.

"Who knows?"

The Twins finally backed up against one of the boxes scattered around the room and froze. Vlad reached out and snatched One by the arm and pulled him toward him. He wrapped his strong arms around the small child and held him tightly. One struggled to free himself, but without any success. After the small fight, One turned and bit down hard on Vlad's hand. Vlad screeched and let go of One in a hurry.

"You'll pay for that." Vlad growled under his breath while eyeing One with flaming eyes. Once again Vlad tried reaching for One, but One phased before he could. Vlad turned to Two, who coward and turned to run.

"I don't think so." Vlad grabbed onto Two's trench coattails and pulled him back. Two kicked and screamed and tried making Vlad let go, but Vlad's grasp wasn't going to loosen.

"Aha! Gotcha you little brat." Vlad evilly smiled at his capture. When Two stopped struggling, Vlad picked the child up and walked over to the middle of the room. He took the rope he had been holding and started tying Two to the floorboards.

"I want Mummy." Two sniveled.

"I want Mommy. I want Mommeeee." Vlad mocked in the whiniest voice he could possibly muster, before breaking into an evil and amused laugh. "That's rich." He laughed. "C'mon, say it again. I want to hear it again." Vlad punched Two's shoulder.

Two scowled.

"Awww, did I hurt your feelings?" Vlad's face turned into a fake sad look.

Two continued to frown, not in the least bit amused by Vlad's jeering.

"Is Mommy's wittle baby scared?" Vlad playfully pinched Two's cheek with his pale fingers. A faint growl could be heard forming in Two's throat. Vlad took his hand away from Two's face at hearing it, not knowing what the child was planning to do. One had already bitten him, and he wasn't about to lose a finger to Two's sharp teeth.

"You're vicious little creatures aren't you?" Vlad looked down at the teeth prints in his hand from when One bit him.

"You know I can phase and get out of here." Two changed the subject. "And I can take my razor and slice you to bits if I wanted to!" Two clinched his teeth.

"Naughty boy. You wouldn't do that would you? Mommy might get mad."

"You don't scare me." Two's eyebrows came closer together as he glared at Vlad. "You just wait until I get out of here! I'll tell Daddy and he'll get mad and send you back to the Source!"

Fear swept across Vlad's face for a minute. Then he bent down and pushed his face into Two's face.

"What did you say?"

"Daddy's gonna send you back to the Source where you should have gone in the first place." Two scowled again.

"Your father is the..." the last word stuck in Vlad's throat.

"Yes, my father is the Merovingian!"

Two and Vlad stared each other in the face for a few minutes before Vlad drew back and sighed.

"It's not fair." He said at last.

"What's not fair?" Two struggled with his rope restraints.

"You having a father. I never had one after I was rescued. I was never a child. I've always been like this." Vlad whipped out a knife and stuck it into the floor just a hair away from Two's face. The poor twin jumped and looked the blade over.

"It should make this more interesting." Vlad sneered, getting into Two's face again. Two began to whimper and cry as Vlad snatched a handful of his silver dreadlocks and yanked them.

"That's right, go ahead and cry. I enjoy seeing my victims cry." Vlad pulled harder on Two's hair. "You know they're in pain when they cry!"

Two screamed then felt Vlad suddenly let go of his hair and tumble over. He opened his eyes and looked around to see One tackling the wicked vampire. One had his razor out and was slicing and slashing at Vlad. Vlad tried hitting the twin to get him off, but One phased each time and reappeared again. Two phased and joined his brother in the fight for their lives. He grabbed onto Vlad's leg and started to pull on it. Vlad kicked the leg Two had hold of and the young twin flew and tumbled across the floor. He phased and appeared beside One.

"Get off me!" Vlad growled, snatching One by the back of the neck. One phased out of Vlad's grasp.

"Go get Daddy, Two! Go get Daddy!" One shouted, while trying to fend off Vlad again. Two phased through the floor and disappeared.

"Now I've got you." Vlad laughed at capturing One, who had been distracted by Two going to get help. One screamed and prepared to gash Vlad good, but the vampire knocked his razor out of his hand and into a corner.

"Naughty, naughty." Vlad sneered while shaking his finger at One. "Someone your age shouldn't play with razors. You could get hurt."

One squirmed as Vlad continued to hold him.

"You know what naughty boys get, don't you?"

One shuddered at the smile on Vlad's face.

"He's up here, Daddy! Hurry before he kills One!" Two led the way to the attic. The Merovingian, Persephone, Cain and Abel ran behind him.

"I knew I should have done something with Vlad years ago. He's going to be the death of us all someday." The Mero grumbled as they reached the attic door. They could hear One screaming and crying from inside.

"Oh hurry, Mero, he's killing him!" Perse gasped. The Mero grabbed the door handle and pushed the heavy door open. Vlad was seated on a box, had the little twin thrown over his knees, and was repeatedly slapping One's rear end with the palm of his hand.

"Vlad! Drop him!" The Merovingian shouted at the dark being. Vlad stopped the punishment he had been giving One and slowly put him down on the floor, not once taking his eyes off the Mero. Poor One ran to Persephone and hid behind her legs while wiping the tears from his eyes and rubbing the area Vlad had smacked him. Perse bent down and picked One up and cuddled him in her arms.

"What is the meaning of this?" The Mero looked Vlad in the eyes.

"Just punishing that naughty child is all." Vlad calmly and darkly answered.

"What did he do?"

"Tried to kill me."

"We did not! You tried to kill us!" Two shouted at Vlad.

"What do you call this then?" Vlad showed his hand and One's teeth marks to everyone.

"It was self defense!" Two glared. "Send him back to the Source, Daddy, he's eeeeeevil."

"He needs to send you back, you little creep." Vlad came toward Two. Two ran and got behind Perse and stuck his tongue out at Vlad.

"That's enough!" The Merovingian shouted to get silence. He sighed and looked at Vlad. "I'll let you off this once, but if I ever find you doing anything to those twins again, I won't hesitate to send you back. Understand?"  
Vlad coldly eyed the Mero then turned to look at Perse, Cain, Abel, and the two twins.

"Understood, master." He softly answered.

"Good. Now let's get out of here." The Mero turned and ushered everyone out of the attic, leaving Vlad alone in his dark and dusty living place.


	16. Silver Bullets

"Sit down!" the Merovingian sternly and angrily said as he pointed to the dining room chairs. The Twins slowly walked up to the chairs, Two crawling up into his.

"Well?" the Mero looked at One.

"I'd rather stand if you don't mind." One mumbled softly, looking down at the floor.

"Very well." The Mero sighed.

The room went silent with everyone looking at each other. Persephone quietly sat down at the table and waited to see what was going to happen next. One softly walked over to Perse, where she picked him up and placed him on her lap. She gently brushed his dreadlocks back and kissed his cheek. While waiting for the Mero to say something, Perse started to tickle One. The little twin giggled and playfully pushed her hand away from him. The Mero sighed and looked at Perse with a daring look.

"Please." he said to Perse, sighing again and looking at Two. "I want both of you to know that I have just about had enough of everything that has been going on around here."

Two and One lowered their heads.

"No more exploding cakes, no more writing on zee walls, no more tearing up everything! Got it?"

Two slumped down in his chair and nodded. The Mero shifted his gaze to One, who nodded as well.

"As punishment, I'm going to, again, take your ghosting ability away."

The Twins started to whine and protest, but a stern look from the Mero made them stay quiet.

"You made us to tear up stuff." Two sniffed back a tear. "Why do you keep getting after us?"

"I don't mind you tearing up stuff. I love it when you destroy, but there comes a time when you've got to learn to control your tearing up instincts! And that means no tearing up my chateau. It's a wonder that this place is still all in one piece after the last few days."

The Mero got up from the chair he had been sitting in and started toward the door.

"And furthermore, I want the both of you to stay out of zee attic and away from Vlad before he ends up mopping the floor with you. He's not the person young children like yourselves should be messing with. He's dangerous."

"But," both Twins began together.

"No buts! You know what Vlad just gave you?" the Mero looked at One. One nodded silently and slowly, remembering his sore backside. "Well, if I catch either one of you with Vlad again, I'll be the one doing that to you!"

Both twins swallowed and cowered. The Mero shook his head before walking out of the room and slamming the door, leaving Perse alone with the Twins. Two slowly turned his head to look at Perse and One seated across from him.

"Well, I've got some work I need to do, sweetie." Said Perse, lifting One off her knee where he had been sitting.

She placed him on the floor and kissed him before walking toward the door.

"You two be good boys now. You hear?"

The Twins smiled.

Once Perse had left the room, Two jumped down from his chair and walked over to One.

"You okay?" he asked.

"What do you mean?"

"What Vlad did."

One made a pouting face and placed his hands behind him.

"Doesn't hurt much now." he finally answered. "Stupid Vlad."

"Phase." said Two.

"I can't! You heard what Daddy said. He took our phasing ability away."

Two looked around the room then back at One.

"So what do we do now?"

One got a wicked look on his face, then punched Two in the arm.

"I noticed earlier that Mummy left her special guns on her night table. Wanna go check 'em out?"

"Just so long as we don't get into trouble over it." Two hesitated.

"Why should we get in trouble? Daddy gave us our own guns so why should looking at Mummy's guns get us in trouble?"

"I dunno,"

"Aw, c'mon." One grabbed Two's arm and pulled him along to their parents' bedroom where they slowly and carefully made their way over to the night table beside the bed. One grabbed onto the rich looking silk bedspread, climbed up on top of the bed, crawled over, and picked up one of the revolvers.

"Catch!" he shouted before tossing it down to Two. He reached over and grabbed another one before jumping down onto the floor again.

"Mummy only keeps one in her purse." One said. Two looked his gun over several times before holding it up and aiming it.

"You think they have bullets in them?"

"Dunno. Want to try them?" One smiled and aimed his gun at a framed painting on the wall. He pulled the trigger and fired it. The bullet made the painting fly off of the wall, sending splinters in all directions.

"Whoa! Cool!" Two giggled and grinned, looking at the smoking bullet hole where the picture used to be.

"Hey, what goes on in here?"

The Twins spun around and looked toward the door where the voice had come from. At first they thought they were dead from being caught with the guns, but they were both relieved to find that it was only Cain.

"What do you two have?" He asked, coming into the room and walking closer to the Twins. Abel stopped in the doorway. Cain looked up at the wall and back at the Twins. Two and One quickly placed the guns behind their backs and backed up against the bed. "Let me see." Cain grabbed onto One's gun and forced it out of the child's hand.

Abel jumped and backed out into the hall. Cain could only stand and stare. The brothers knew what kind of gun it was. They had seen Perse use it on other werewolves before.

"I want my gun back!" One sniveled, reaching his small arms up to Cain. Cain gently pushed the child back and held the gun farther out of his reach.

"I don't think you should have this. This thing is dangerous, especially to me and my brother."

"I still want it! Give it to me!" One shouted in frustration, then gave Cain a swift kick in the shins, which sent the werewolf yelping in pain. Forgetting the gun, Cain grabbed his throbbing leg. One snatched up his gun and ran toward the door, Two close behind him.

"You little runts!" Cain gasped in pain while making his way over to the door to catch the Twins. "Give me back that gun!"

Trapped by Abel and Cain, the Twins stopped and looked at both men that stood on either side of them.

"Give me the gun. Pretty please? Give your old Uncle Abel the gun." Abel held his hand out to One.

"Don't entice them, Abel!" Cain motioned with his hand for Abel to shut up. "Besides we aren't their uncles!"  
The Twins suddenly pointed their guns at Abel. The werewolf nervously backed up and then took off running down the hall, screaming as he went. Amused by Abel's reaction, they turned toward Cain and pointed their guns at him too.

"N-now wait a minute." Cain's legs started to buckle under him. "M-maybe we can talk this over."

"Bang, bang!" both Twins said together before taking off giggling down the hall after Abel.

The Merovingian looked up from the papers he was busy with and wondered what all the commotion was about down the hall. People screamed and trampled about like a herd of wild buffalo. Cringing at the thought of what might be going on 'this time'; he threw his pen down and got up. Looking out into the hall, he was met with Cain and Abel rushing by him at speeds not normal for anyone. When they saw the Mero they quickly darted into his office.

"Close the door!" Cain stuttered in fear while trying to pry the Mero's hands away from the door. The Mero stared at the man then let go of the door.

"What's the matter with you two?" he finally got up the nerve to ask.

"It's those Twins!" Abel gasped.

"What about them?"

"They somehow got hold of guns." Cain stuttered.

"So? That's not unusual. They have guns of their own. I gave them to them."

"No, no you don't understand." Abel's face was pale.

Before the two guys could continue, the door burst open and in walked the Twins, both of them holding the revolvers. Cain and Abel nearly jumped out of their skins as they scrambled to hide behind what little furniture was in the Mero's office.

"Take those guns away from them!" Abel shouted, peeking out from behind the settee.

The Mero looked at the Twins, who were trying to hide the guns behind their backs so the Mero couldn't see them. At that moment, Persephone came running up behind the two little albino twins and stopped in the doorway.

"Persephone, what's going on here?" The Mero looked at his wife.

"The Twins found my special revolvers."

The Mero's eyebrows perked a little then he glanced at the Twins.

"Your special revolvers?" The Mero repeated slowly. Perse walked by the Twins and up to the Mero.

"Yes, the ones that have," Before Perse could finish, a deafening shot was heard. Both Perse and Mero jumped and jerked their heads toward the Twins. One was smiling and had his gun aimed. Perse and Mero turned to where he had fired and saw Cain standing as still as he could, his shades half hanging from his face, and his eyes bugging. Above his head, not more than a few inches away, was a smoking bullet hole. Persephone, seeing what had almost happened, fainted into the Mero's arms. The Mero eased his passed out wife to the floor then jumped back up.

"I demand to know what is going on!" he roared. "Give me that gun!" he shouted before snatching the gun from One's hands.

"Master! Those guns have silver bullets in them!" Abel gasped.

"Yes I know. Perse put them in there herself." The Mero looked at the gun then at the Twins.

"Do you have any idea of what they can do to us?" Cain stuttered, after getting his sense back.

"Yes."

"Then take those guns away from those kids! They've been chasing us around the chateau with them!"

"Bang, bang!" shouted Two, pointing his gun at Cain. The poor man screamed and dove behind the desk. Two giggled with delight at Cain's reaction. The Mero glared at Two in an evil way, making the poor little twin cower and hand his revolver over. The Mero angrily snatched it out of his hand.

"Someone give her some air!" Abel said, crawling on hands and knees from behind the settee to Persephone's side. The Mero turned from the Twins and knelt beside his wife, fanning her face with a piece of paper he had picked up from a nearby table. Soon Persephone started coming to.

"Wha-what happened?" she asked in a low voice, the Mero helping her up.

"You fainted, my dear." The Mero replied, while he made sure Perse could stand on her own before letting go. By this time, the commotion had attracted a crowd of butlers, servants, and maids outside in the hall. The Mero walked over to the study room door and closed it.

"Now." The Mero said, turning back to everyone in the room. "I want to know what in the Matrix is going on here, as if I didn't already know."

Two started to inch away from where he was standing, but the Mero firmly grabbed onto his arm and pulled him back.

"Well we were walking down the hall, past your bedroom, and we heard a gunshot. So we stopped to check it out. When we came into the room the Twins had Mistress' guns. After that they started to chase us with them." Abel finally got out.

"Is that true?" The Mero growled at Two.

Two, getting ready to cry, nodded his head.

"Get out of here! Everyone! Go!" The Mero shouted hysterically. "Leave me alone!"

Cain and Abel hurried toward the door and scrambled out of the room before the Mero really lost his temper.

"I have had all I can stand for one day!" The Mero grumbled aloud.

In a fit of frustration, the Mero turned and slapped Two firmly on his backside once before letting go of him. The little twin quickly ran out of the study and disappeared down the hall. The Merovingian grabbed hold of One and did the same to him, before the twin ran out and joined his brother.

"Don't say anything!" The Mero said to Persephone before she could open her mouth.


	17. Lord of the 'Missing' Rings

For the rest of that afternoon, after the guns incident, everything remained quiet and peaceful. At times the Merovingian wondered what was going to happen next, and even cringed at the thought. But as the hours rolled around, nothing else ever came. That night proved to be one of the most peaceful nights he had ever had in awhile.

After dinner, the Mero, Persephone, and the Twins sat relaxing in one of their private living rooms. The Mero read the newspaper while the Twins occupied themselves in one corner of the room. Occasionally the Mero would glance over at the two silver bundles, who were both lying on the floor either looking at picture books or playing with whatever toys Perse had given to them when she placed them there.

"Honey." Perse suddenly said, breaking the long silence that had been in the room.

"Yes?" the Merovingian sighed and shook his paper before looking over at his wife.

"Could you come here for a minute?"

The Mero looked over at the Twins, who were actually playing quietly for once, then after placing his paper down, got up and made his way over to his wife.

"What is it, dear?"

"I accidentally dropped my wedding ring down this air vent!" she gasped, while pointing down.

"Wha!" The Mero's head jerked down. "How could you do something like that?"

"I-I don't know! It must have slipped off of my hand. All I know is I heard a 'tink' sound, and then when I looked down I saw my ring disappear down the vent."

"Don't panic, dear, we'll get it back somehow." The Mero patted his wife's hand before looking down at the vent again.

"I know, I'll go get Cain and Abel. They'll help me get it."

The Mero went out into the hall for a few minutes, then came back into the room.

"They'll be here in a minute." he said, coming up to Perse's side again. "Can you see if it's here around the top or did it go all the way down?"

"No, I think it went all the way down. I heard it roll."

At that moment, Cain and Abel appeared beside them.

"What is it, Master?" said Cain.

"Persephone dropped her wedding ring down this vent." The Mero pointed down. "Can you two help me get it out?"

Both Cain and Abel looked down at the vent, Cain getting down on his knees for a closer look.

"You have a flashlight?" Cain said.

"Somewhere, I think." The Mero walked over to a table and opened up a drawer on it, soon pulling out a small flashlight from under some papers. "Here."

Cain took the light and shone it down the vent and struggled to see something gold and shiny, but there wasn't anything. He took off the vent cover to get a better look, but still there was no sign of any kind of ring.

"Might have to go down in the basement and take off the vent ducts to get at it." The Mero said under his breath.

All the time, the Twins curiously and silently watched everything from where they were sitting. Two looked over at his brother, who shrugged in return.

"Well, might as well get started." The Mero sighed. "Come on, you two can help."

The Merovingian, Cain, Abel, and Persephone all left the room. The moment they left, the Twins jumped up and ran over to the air vent.

"Mummy lost her ring down there?" Two asked, curiously.

"I guess so. That's what they were talking about." One looked down the uncovered vent.

"I wonder what else is down there." Two got down on hands and knees.

"I dunno." One stopped and smirked. This was a good opportunity to have some fun with his little brother. "But I've heard that a huge evil dragon lives down there."

Two's head jerked up. "A-a huge dragon?"

"Yeah! A huge dragon with long fangs and sharp claws, and sometimes you can even see his spines coming up through the vent cover as he's coiling around the maze of pipes! Grrarrr!" One bore his teeth and playfully jumped at Two. Poor Two screamed, leaped back and started to whimper.

"Don't do that!" he shouted, half ready to cry.

"Do what?" One tried to keep from giggling.

"You're scaring me." Two sniffled.

"Aw, you're such a baby."

"I am NOT!" Two shouted back.

"Mummy's wittle baby." One teased. Two's face started to get a little flushed.

"I am NOT a baby!" Two started to cry. "How do you know there's a dragon living down there?" he asked through his tears.

"Just heard."

Two made a pouting face as he eyed One.

"It's the truth." One insisted.

"I don't believe it!" Two snapped. "You're just trying to scare me, is all."

"No, no! It's the truth! How do you think we have heat in the chateau in the winter?"

Two silently and innocently looked down at the air vent, then looked back up at One.

"I still say you're trying to scare me." Two pouted. "I'm gonna ask Daddy. If he says there's no dragon living down there, then you're gonna get it!"

One smiled innocently.

Persephone, Cain, Abel, and the Mero finally made their way down into the dark and dusty basement that was a level or two up from the dungeon.

"Now where is the room we were in?" The Mero glanced around at all the twisting ducts and pipes, and labyrinth of halls and sections.

"Want me to go up and pound on the floor so you can locate it?" Abel asked.

"That's a good idea."

In a flash, Abel was gone and soon a faint constant pounding was heard.

"I think it's over there." Perse pointed to an area on the far left. After they made sure it was indeed the duct going up to the living room, they hollered up to Abel that they had found it. Cain took a wrench and pounded the duct several times.

"You idiot! Why did you just do that?" The Mero shouted while yanking Cain's hand away from the pipe.

"To knock it loose."

"Knock it loose." The Mero mumbled. "You're going to knock the ring farther down into the duct is what you're going to do! Give me that thing." The Mero snatched the wrench out of Cain's hand. "I'll show you how to get this thing loose."

An hour later found a weary Merovingian, Cain, and Abel dirty and looking through what duct pipes they had torn from the basement's ceiling.

"Found anything yet?" The Mero looked up from the pipe he was searching.

"Nope." both Cain and Abel said at once.

"That thing's got to be here somewhere!"

Cain looked up into the duct pipe that was still attached to the vent part.

"Hey, Master, I think it's up here. But it's too high for me to reach."

The Mero and Abel made their way over to where Cain was standing and looked up, Abel shining his flashlight up.

"Yes, that's it alright." said the Mero, looking up at a sparkling gold object wedged in part of the piping. "Looks like it's stuck in part of that piping there. We're going to have to have something to knock it down with because none of us can reach that, even with a ladder. Our arms aren't long enough."

"Someone needs to drop some kind of small object through it. That'd do it." Cain suggested.

"Good idea. But..." The Mero looked up then at Cain again. "The Twins! The Twins are up there in that room aren't they?"

"They were when I went up to pound on the floor." said Abel.

"One! Two!" the Mero shouted up the vent. A few minutes passed and the pale faces of the Twins could be seen looking down through the vent opening.

"What is it, Daddy?" they both said in unison.

"Daddy needs you to do something for him. Mommy's ring is stuck on the inside of this vent, and we need you both to find some kind of small object that you can use to drop down it to knock it loose. Got it?"

The Twins nodded and left the vent to look for something. Both of them stood in the middle of the room and looked around for something to drop down the vent.

"What do we get?" Two asked.

One shrugged.

"I dunno. Anything we can find, I guess." One looked over toward the corner they had been playing at. He took off running and grabbed up a small black toy Cadillac and lifted it up for Two to see. Two nodded and smiled, then they both took off toward the vent.

"We found something."

"Good! Now drop it down, aiming it more toward your left." The Mero said.

"Right." Abel corrected.

"I mean, your right."

They waited a few seconds, but nothing came down.

"Daddy?" Two's voice came down the metal tube.

"What?" The Mero cringed at Two calling him 'Daddy'.

"Does a huge evil dragon live down there?"

The Merovingian looked at Abel and Cain in a puzzling way, them doing the same to the Mero.

"What on earth are you talking about?" The Mero shouted back up the pipe.

"One says a huge dragon lives down there and that you can see his spines coming up through the air vent sometimes. Is it true? If it is, I'm scared!"

The Mero sighed wearily and stomped his foot.

"NO! There's no dragon down here! Now drop whatever it is you have!" The Mero shouted angrily.

Before the Mero could get out of the way, the Twins' toy Cadillac came down through the pipe and hit him in the forehead, bouncing off and into Abel's hands. But no ring came with it. The Mero groaned and held his throbbing head for a few minutes before he angrily looked up the air vent pipe and into the faces of the Twins.

"Did that work, Daddy?" said One.

The Mero gritted his teeth and struggled to hold his temper.

"No, it didn't work. You're going to have to find something else." he calmly answered back.

The Twins stood in the middle of the room again and looked around. This time Two ran and grabbed up several things, handing some of them to One. They both ran back over to the air vent and started dropping the objects, one at a time, down it. Each time the Mero failed to get out of the way as the raining objects came down on him. First there was a paperweight, then a squeaky toy cat, and a bronze flower vase.

"Confound it!" The Mero looked up when the objects had stopped.

"You told us to drop something down." Two softly said.

"Well shout 'fore' or something before you do it!" The Mero moaned

"That still didn't knock it loose." Cain interrupted.

"A ball!" said Abel. "Try and find a rounded object like a ball." Abel shouted up to the Twins. Both of the Twins looked around them for a round object. One suddenly punched Two's arm and pointed toward the fireplace where a croquet set was placed over to the side.

"There're some balls there!"

The Twins ran to the set and grabbed up two balls each and carried them over to the vent.

"We found some!" One shouted down.

"Good! Drop them through it. Try to get them over to the right side the best you can." The Mero shouted back up.

Two let go of the heavy wooden ball he held, like the Mero had told him too. What came next was a shout of angry French words and moans.

"I told you two to throw a ball down it, not a rock!" The Mero moaned more. He stopped and pulled something out of his hair.

"The ring!" he shouted. "It's Perse's," he stopped and looked the ring over. "Wait a second. This isn't Perse's wedding ring."

"It isn't?" Cain looked over the Mero's shoulder. The Mero looked up at the two twins above him. Two smiled sheepishly.

"It's mine, Daddy. I lost it just then when I dropped that ball down."

Without saying anything, the Mero told the Twins to throw another ball down, this time with him staying out of the way.

At last, the ring finally came down with this one. The Mero reached and picked the ring up and shouted to everyone within listening range that the ring had been found.


	18. A Sicky Feeling

After the day's events, Persephone and the Merovingian thought it best to put the Twins to bed early. Everything remained quiet and still, until around 4:30 in the morning. Two woke One up from a sound sleep by softly nudging his arm.

"What is it, Two?" One mumbled, pulling his security blanket closer to his face. "It's still dark out."

"I don't feel good." Was Two's soft answer.

"Phase."

"I can't! Daddy hasn't given us our phasing ability back yet. Remember?" Two sniffled. One sat up in bed and rubbed his eyes. Two leaned back against his bed and looked longingly at his brother through the nightlight lit darkness.

"Go wake up Mummy." One pointed toward the door of their room. Two shook his head frantically, his little dreadlocks flying from side to side.

"I don't want to."

"Why?" One asked.

"I just don't."

Two pulled the stuffed white teddy bear he held, closer to his face.

One sighed, reached over and struggled to turn the night table lamp on. Two squinted once One had succeeded in turning it on.

"Okay, I'll see what I can do." One jumped down from his bed. "Where does it hurt?" One reached for Two's silky silver nightshirt. Two pushed One's hand away from him and looked down at the floor.

"I can't help you until you tell me where it hurts at."

Two remained quiet.

One walked over to a desk and picked up his razor, then walked back over to Two.

"Okay, let's start" One again grabbed onto Two's shirt.

"W-whatcha gonna do?" Two stuttered.

"I'm gonna do an auto toppy"

"A what?"

"You know, what the BFI does. An auto topsy."

"You mean FBI?" Two corrected.

"Yeah!"

Two quickly jerked free of One's grasp.

"You can't do that! I'm not dead! They only do that on dead people!"

"Then go pester Daddy some more. I can wait a few minutes."

Two knocked the razor out of One's hand and started making a pouting face.

"Don't cry. I was only teasing you."

"I don't want to be teased! I don't feel good!" Two shouted then winced.

"Shhh! Don't wake up Mummy and Daddy."

Two stared at One through his tears.

"I got an idea. Just a second and I'll be right back." said One, racing off out into the hall. A few minutes later, One returned with about three boxes of Kleenex in his arms.

"What's that for?" Two timidly asked, watching One place the Kleenex boxes on the floor. One didn't say anything, but instead took out several tissues.

"Lift up your sleeve." One nudged Two.

"Why?"

"Just do it."

Two slowly pulled up the sleeve of his nightshirt and watched as One took the tissues and wrapped them around his arm.

"It's a cast!" One said at last. "Feeling any better?"

"No. Not really."

One took out more tissues and wrapped them around Two's arm.

"How about now?"

"No." Two frowned.

One sighed and took the tissues off of Two's arm, then walked out of the room and disappeared down the hall again. Two climbed up onto his bed and lay there while he waited for One to return. A few minutes passed and One finally came back again, this time carrying a small box of band-aids. Two wearily watched as One took out one of the bandages and stuck it on his arm.

"Feeling better now?" asked One, softly.

"No."

One grabbed onto the bandage and ripped it from Two's arm, causing Two to yelp.

"OW! Go easy, will you?" Two glared at One while he rubbed the place on his arm where the bandage had been. One said nothing, and instead placed the bandage on Two's forehead.

"How about now?"

"No!" Two frowned.

One again grabbed onto the bandage and ripped it off. Two yelped more and grabbed his head.

"Stop it! That hurts!" Two hoarsely said while rubbing his head.

One leaned back against his bed and sighed, letting the band-aid slip through his fingers and fall to the floor. Two lay back down on his stomach, buried his face in the covers and eyed One. One, once more, ran out of the room. Two glared toward the door that One had disappeared out of and shuddered at the thought of what his brother was going to bring in next. Just when Two was about to drift back off to sleep, One came up beside him while carrying an armful of bottles. One took out one of the bottles saying 'Arthritis Pills' on the front label and looked it over.

"Is this the Aspirin?" he asked Two. Two raised up a little.

"You're asking ME!" he said in alarm.

"I guess it is." said One.

"I don't want any pills!" Two buried his face back down in the bed covers. "I just wanna be left alone!"

One let the bottles, he held in his hands, fall to the floor, then he ran back out of the room. This time in returning, he carried a hot water bottle in one hand. He walked up beside Two's bed and placed it on top of Two's back.

"Yeeeeeow!" Two screamed, grabbed hold of the bottle, and threw it at One. "That thing's hot!"

"Sorry." One mumbled, then disappeared yet again. After awhile, One finally showed again. In his hands he carried a small container of ice. Two's head perked up, his face showing fear.

"W-whatcha gonna do with that?"

"Well, Mummy once said that if you put Ice on an owie, it gets smaller. Maybe it'll make you feel better, since it made the owie feel better"

"But what if I get smaller?" Two looked worried.

"Then I'll carry you around in my pocket!"

Two's sparkly silver eyes bugged as One picked up a piece of ice out of the container and placed it on his arm. Two struggled and started to cry.

"What is it?" One asked.

"It's too cold!" Two whimpered. "Besides it's not my arm that hurts!"

"Then what hurts?"

"My throat!"

"Here, then. Eat it." One pushed the cube of ice into Two's mouth. Two frowned, took the ice out if his mouth and threw it into the rest of the ice cubes One had brought.

"Why don't you leave me alone?"

"Fine!" One jumped up into his bed and pulled the covers over him.

Everything was quiet for awhile.

"One!"

"What is it now?" One opened his eyes.

"Nothing." Two softly said.

Both Twins drifted off to sleep, and slept until One awoke around the usual time of them getting up. He jumped out of bed and nudged Two. Two mumbled and buried his face deeper into his covers.

"You still sick?" One asked.

Two nodded his head and moaned.

"I'm gonna tell Mummy." said One, before walking off.

The next thing Two knew was that Persephone was hovering over him and feeling of his forehead and cheeks.

"Well?" Two heard the Mero's voice ask.

"He's got a fever." Perse answered, turning Two over on his back. Two weakly and sleepily looked into Perse's face before closing his eyes again. "Poor baby." Perse whispered before picking Two up and holding him close to her.

"Take him to my doctor. I don't want the rest of us getting whatever he has." The Mero gruffly said.

Two's eyes widened. He'd never been to a doctor before, but he had heard about them.

"I-I feel better now." Two softly and weakly said, trying to get out of Perse's arms.

Perse smiled.

"Nice try. Mero's right, sweetie, I'm going to take you to the doctor as soon as I get you dressed."

"Take him right now. The sooner the better." The Mero started for the door, not even seeing the hot water bottle lying on the floor. The Mero stepping on it caused the stopper to pop out and a spray of water shot out and up the Mero's clothes.

"Agh! What is all of zis? Zis stuff all over zee floor?" The Mero brushed the water from him and pointed to all the medicine bottles, Kleenex, and band-aids lying on the floor.

"Um, I was just trying to help Two last night is all." One softly said. "I'll pick 'em up." One hurriedly ran over and started to pick up the items before the Mero lost his temper.

A few minutes later, Two struggled with Perse as she dressed him, every so often telling her that he was 'all right' and felt better, even though he knew he wasn't. When Perse left the room to get something, One walked up beside the bed Two was sitting on.

"One," Two began, nervously.

"Yeah?"

"What is a doctor?"

"It's someone that makes you better, I think."

"What will he do to me?"

"I dunno."

"I hope he won't do any kind of auto tospy." Two frowned.

One could only smile.

"I've heard about doctors." said One. "I've heard that they have all kinds of strange gadgets that they check you with."

"They do?" Two nervously looked at his brother. "Like what?"

"I dunno. I think one is some kind of long thing that they place on you, and the other end goes into the doctor's ears."

Two's eyes started to widen.

"And I've heard that they look at your insides too!"

Two started to squirm.

"How?" Two asked.

"I guess they turn you inside out or something." One shrugged. "I've also heard that they sometimes prick you with needles too."

"I don't want them to stick me!" Two backed up a little and pulled his legs up to his small chest and shuddered. "How can a doctor help you get better? Sounds to me like you'd be fortunate to get away alive after all of that!"

At that moment, Perse walked into the room again.

"I feel a lot better now!" Two forced a weak smile and grin at Perse. Perse could only shake her head at the twin.


	19. Two and Doctor Phobia

Perse dragged Two along by the arm to the part of the chateau that had the doctor's office. She held the twin tightly while reaching to open the waiting room door.

"I don't wanna go to the doctor!" Two shouted, while trying to pry Perse's hand loose from his arm. "I feel better, honest I do!"

"Now, now. The doctor isn't going to hurt you." Said Perse, picking Two up and carrying him inside. Before she could go far, Two grabbed onto the doorway and held on tight with both hands.

"I don't wanna go!"

"You haven't even been to a doctor before. How do you know it's all that bad?" Perse tried to loosen Two's grip as she spoke.

"One told me all about it."

"Oh? And what has One been telling you this time?"

"He told me all I needed to know, to know I don't want to go!" Two tightened his grip on the door. The other people in the waiting room couldn't help but stare at Persephone and Two, some of them trying to hide a giggle or two.

"C'mon now, let go of the door." Perse gave one last pull that sent Two letting go, and the door slamming closed, the glass window in it rattling. Two grabbed onto Perse's arms and started to shake with fear.

"I've never seen such. You should be ashamed of the way you're acting." Perse frowned at Two as she sat him down in a chair. Two lowered his head at the scolding.

"I don't want them to turn me inside out!" Two sniveled.

"Turn you inside out?" Perse turned a puzzled look at Two.

"Yeah! One said that the doctor sometimes looks at your insides. How else can he, unless he turns you inside out?"

Perse had to almost hide her laughter at the young child's words.

"Two, the doctor isn't going to turn you inside out." Perse answered, not knowing of what else to say.

It wasn't long before the doctor called them into the examination room. Perse walked into the cold room while the doctor closed the door behind her.

"My husband will be here in a few minutes." She said, still holding onto Two. Two curiously looked the room over and shuddered. His eyes soon met the nurse standing over by one of the counters. Not liking the way she looked, Two started to growl at her.

"Two!" Perse gently shook Two. "That's enough."

"Nice kid you've got there." Said the doctor. "We'd better get this started, I have more patients waiting." The doctor motioned to an examination table. Perse walked over to it and placed Two down on it, rubbing his back to comfort him.

At that moment, the Mero opened up the door and walked in, followed by One.

"Well? Is he gonna live?" the Mero said, sarcastically. Perse frowned and motioned for the Mero to shut up. One jumped up in a chair that was next to the table and smiled at Two.

While the doctor talked to Perse and Mero, the nurse Two had growled at walked up to him while carrying something in her hands.

"Open up." She said.

"O-open up what?" Two stuttered as he eyed the gadget the nurse held.

"Your mouth." the nurse gently grabbed onto Two's cheeks and tried to force his mouth open. "C'mon, open."

Two finally gave in and opened his mouth. The nurse stuck the thermometer under his tongue and told him he could close his mouth again.

"And don't you take it out."

Two turned a disgusted face towards One.

"What's wrong?" One asked, leaning his elbows on the table. All Two could do was point to the thermometer in his mouth and make a displeased face. A few minutes passed and the nurse came up and took the thermometer out of Two's mouth, looked at it and handed it to the doctor.

"I can't believe she stuck that in my mouth!" Two wiped his mouth on his shirtsleeve. "No telling where it's been!"

One smiled.

"You're enjoying this aren't you?" Two frowned at One.

"No." One smiled more.

Without a word, the doctor came up to Two and started to look him over, feeling around his neck.

"Your throat hurt?" the doctor softly asked Two. Two nodded. The doctor reached to feel of Two's forehead.

"He's got a fever alright. High temperature too." the doctor said out loud. "He looks a little too pale, doesn't he?"

The Mero rolled his eyes and sighed, "He's supposed to be that way. They're albinos."

"Oh!" the doctor mused.

The doctor suddenly grabbed hold of Two's face and rapidly hit his fingers on his cheeks, right under his eyes, then moved to his forehead. He stopped, Two looking as wide-eyed as he could possibly look.

"Did that hurt?" the doctor asked.

"W-was it supposed to?" Two softly and shakily answered.

"Good, it's not sinus." the doctor turned to Perse and Mero.

"What's sinus? Is it a brother to a virus?" Two asked timidly.

"Never mind." the doctor sighed. He then reached and took out his stethoscope. Two's eyes grew big.

"Ahhhhh! It's gonna suck my brains out! One! Help Me!" Two screamed, while backing up. Perse grabbed onto him to calm him down. One quickly jumped off the chair he had been standing in and bit down hard on the doctor's leg to protect

Two. The man screamed and knocked poor One away from him.

"You all right?" the Mero asked the doctor, while holding onto One.

"Yes." the doctor gasped, rubbing his leg. "I'm quite all right."

"Two, that's not gonna hurt you. The doctor just wants to listen to your heart." Perse whispered to Two.

The doctor sighed and reached for Two's shirt and pulled it up. Two squirmed a little, but Perse continued to rub his back to comfort him.

"It's alright. It's not gonna hurt." The doctor said to Two, whose chest was heaving.

"You promise?" Two whimpered.

"I promise." the doctor smiled. The doctor breathed on the end of the stethoscope and placed it on Two's chest.

After awhile of examining Two, the doctor finally thought that what Two had was some kind of infection in his throat.

"A shot of antibiotic should clear it up in no time." was the doctor's reply.

The nurse walked into the room (after walking out a few minutes before), while carrying something in her hand, and closed the door behind her.

"W-what are you gonna do to me?" Two shakily asked while eyeing the nurse.

"Lift up your sleeve." Said the nurse.

Two looked at the nurse hesitantly then slowly pulled his sleeve up. The nurse took the cap off the syringe she held and grabbed hold of Two's arm. Two began to squirm and push the nurse away from him with his feet at seeing the needle.

"Get away from me with that thing!" He shouted. "You're gonna stick me, that's what you're gonna do!" Two turned and prepared to jump off of the table, but Perse, the Mero, and the doctor grabbed onto him at once and held him down.

"It's not going to hurt. Now be still." The nurse said, while reaching for Two's arm again. Two squirmed even more and started to cry. In the midst of the confusion, the nurse injected the medication into what she thought was Two's arm, but…

"Yeeeeeeow!" the Merovingian shouted and jerked back from holding onto Two. He turned and looked at the dazed nurse, while rubbing an area of his arm.

"You're supposed to give HIM the shot, not me!" the Mero pointed toward Two.

"I thought I did."

"Well you didn't! Do I look like him?"

"I'm awfully sorry, sir. I…"

"Go get your eyes examined!"

The nurse hurried out of the room while Perse and the doctor continued to hold Two down on the table. Quick as the nurse had left, she returned with another syringe. She took the cap off again and reached for Two's arm, making sure she got the right person this time.

"Now as I said before, it's not going to hurt."

"If it's not gonna hurt, then why did Daddy scream like that?" Two whimpered. The nurse sighed and looked at the Mero with one of those 'Nice going' looks.

"Besides, I'm not Two." Two suddenly blurted out the best he could with everyone on top of him. The doctor and Perse eased up on him. "That's Two over there!" Two pointed in poor One's direction. The nurse turned and walked towards One, who jumped up out of his chair and started to run. The nurse grabbed onto his arm.

"I'm not Two!" One screamed. "I'm not even sick!"

"He's lying! He is so Two! And I'm One." Two insisted.

"That's Two on the table! Honest it is!" One sniveled and tried to get away from the nurse and the needle she held.

The nurse looked at the twin under the doctor and Perse's arms then back at the twin she held. Looking closer at Two, the doctor finally confirmed that it was Two. The nurse let go of One and walked back to where she had been.

"I knew this was a day I should have stayed in bed." the nurse breathed before taking hold of Two's arm again.

"That makes two of us!" said Two. "I don't wanna be stuck!" Two sniffed and sniveled.


	20. Bath Time Dilemma

Two lay in his bed and stared at the ceiling while listening to the Merovingian and Persephone having an up roaring conversation outside the door. It had been a very hard fight, but the nurse at the doctor's office finally succeeded in giving Two the injection. Afterward, Persephone brought Two, screaming and crying, back into his room. Now she was outside the bedroom door complaining to the Mero that all of it could have been easily avoided if he had just given the Twins' phasing powers back to them and allowed Two to phase and heal himself.

"How much longer are you going to hold their phasing powers from them?" Perse said at the top of her voice.

"Until they learn to obey and behave." The Mero answered in an equal voice. "I've been saying it now all this week. Is everyone deaf around here?"

"It's because of all this that Two got sick and had to have the shot." Perse came back.

"So I'm at fault here?" The Mero stepped back in alarm. "I'm to blame for all of zis?"

"Wouldn't you agree?" Perse crossed her arms. "If Two had been able to phase and heal himself, he wouldn't have had to go to the doctor, he wouldn't have had to get the shot, and you wouldn't have gotten stuck in the arm!"

The Mero huffed and turned away from Perse then stopped. As much as he hated to admit, his wife was right about it all. Everything could have been avoided if he had just returned the Twins' phasing. The Mero stood and stared while listening to Two's faint crying on the other side of the door. He sighed, turned and walked past Perse.

"Impossible man." Perse sighed to herself after the Mero left. "Sometimes I wonder why I ever married him."  
Persephone opened up the bedroom door and walked into the Twins' room where poor little Two still lay in bed, softly crying into his pillow.

"Aw, come on, sweetie, everything's going to be okay." Perse picked up Two and held him close to her. Two wiped the tears from his eyes and sighed to himself, sniffing occasionally. One bounded into the room at that moment and jumped up on the bed.

"One, calm down." Perse said, as One roughly jostled the bed as he crawled across it.

"I don't want to go to the doctor anymore!" Two finally said in a pouting voice. "Doctors are mean."

"They aren't mean, Two." Perse smiled. "He was only trying to help you feel better."

"Make me feel better? How does sticking someone make them feel better?" Two stuck his thumb in his mouth and pressed his head next to Perse.

"I know what the both of you need." Perse changed the subject. Both Twins looked up at her. "You two need a bath."

"Bath?" One gasped before jumping off the bed and running toward the bedroom door.

"One, get back here!" Perse shouted to the little twin. One stopped and slowly turned to look at Perse.

"A bath isn't going to hurt you. Just think you'll get to play in the water."

"We hate water!" One shouted before running out into the hallway.

"C'mon, Two. Let's go get your brother and get into the bathroom!" Perse picked up Two.

"I don't want a bath!" Two screamed and started crying as Perse carried him out of the room and down the hall.

Moments later found Persephone dragging two screaming and pleading twins to the bathroom.

"No, Mummy, we don't want a bath!" Two and One whined together while trying to make it difficult for Persephone to push them into the bathroom, where they both knew a watery experience awaited them. Two grabbed onto the door facing and held on as tight as he could.

"For goodness' sake, it's not going to kill you!" Perse gritted her teeth and pulled on Two.

"We might drown!" Two shouted.

"I strongly doubt it. Now come on, let go!" Perse grabbed hold of Two's fingers and tried to pry them loose. One found this to be a good time to try and escape and ran past Perse, who was preoccupied with trying to get Two loose. Finally, Two gave up and let loose of the door. Kicking and screaming while Perse carried him over to the tub, Two squirmed out of his silver trench coat and tried running toward the door.

"Oh no you don't!" Perse jumped and tackled the small twin and wrapped him up in the bath rug. She looked around her and noticed that Two was the only twin she had in the bathroom. She sighed in frustration and picked Two up, rug and all. At that moment, the Merovingian stuck his head into the bathroom.

"How's it going in here?" he asked.

"Terrible! I'm short one twin. He must have run out when Two was latched to the door facing." Perse struggled to get Two's clothes off.

"You mean this twin?" The Mero pulled One out from behind him and shoved him into the bathroom. "I found him running for his life down the hall. Wasn't looking where he was going and slammed into me."

Perse glared at One then took him by the arm and pulled him over beside her, while still trying to get Two undressed.

"Close that door and lock it." Perse said to the Mero. After the door clicked, Perse let One go. The little twin ran over to the door and tried opening it, but it was no use.

"Two!" Perse shouted at the squirming bundle she held. Two stopped struggling and looked up into Perse's face. "Do you want a spanking?"

Two whimpered and frantically shook his head 'no'.

"Then stop behaving like that and let me get your clothes off."

Two stopped squirming and allowed Perse to undress him. First she took off his small waistcoat and then started unbuttoning his shirt.

"Take your thumb out of your mouth so I can get this sleeve off." Perse said while patting the hand that Two held up to his mouth. Two scowled distastefully, but obeyed. Perse proceeded to take Two's shirt off and immediately after, Two stuck his thumb, again, in his mouth.

It was a very hard fight, but Perse finally managed to undress both twins and put them into the tub of warm soapy water. Two and One looked at each other in disgust while eyeing the soap and water their so called 'mother' had placed them in. One lifted up his hand, allowing the water to drip off it.

"Eeeew! It's wet!" One cringed.

"It's supposed to be." Perse said.

"Why do we have to take a bath anyway?" Two looked longingly at Perse.

"Because your father refuses to give you back your phasing. Until he does, we've got to keep it where we can live with you." Perse chuckled.

The Twins looked back down at the water in complete disgust and sighed long and heavy. Perse walked over, bent down on her knees and grabbed One. After lathering the soap on the rag she held, Perse started to rub it over One's pale figure.

"Aw, come on. Don't look so glum." Perse playfully splashed a little water on One, who continued to look as disagreeable as possible.

"We don't like water!" was all One said, as Perse continued to soap him down.

After a few minutes of washing One, the bathroom door slowly came open and in walked the Merovingian.

"Perse, you're wanted on the phone." he said.

"Great." she replied while looking at her soapy hands. "Well, let me get my hands washed and I'll be right there. Will you watch the Twins until I come back?"

The Mero sighed.

"Yes, I suppose so." he finally gave in after looking long and hard at the two in the tub.

"Make sure they stay in the tub." Perse ordered before leaving the room.

The Mero looked over at the Twins once Perse was gone. Both of them silently eyed the Mero in return.

"Don't even think about anything." The Mero huffed before finding a seat on the edge of the Jacuzzi across the room.

Two and One both lifted their eyebrows at the Mero's words. One slowly and carefully reached out and grabbed hold of the bar of soap lying on the tub's side and picked it up. Not expecting it to be slippery, One jumped when the soap bar slipped from his hand and fell silently on the floor mat. His eyes quickly went up to the Mero, who, to his relief, wasn't looking in the Twins' direction at that moment. One turned to Two and pointed down to the floor. Two shrugged his shoulders and continued to eye the Mero in silence.

"Daddy." One finally said.

The Merovingian once again cringed at One calling him that.

"What do you want?" Mero sighed.

"The soap fell on the floor."

The Mero again sighed, then got up and walked over to the tub. He bent over picked up the soap and handed it to One.

After returning to his seat on the Jacuzzi's side, he carefully eyed the Twins. One handed the soap bar to Two, who carefully took it. Without warning, the soap bar again slipped from the hands of the Twins, bounced off the side of the tub, and slid across the tiled floor. Both Twins exchanged glances then looked at the Mero, who was in the middle of a yawn.

"Daddy, Daddy!" Two suddenly started screaming.

"What is it now?" The Mero stood up.

"There's something in the water!"

One screamed and grabbed the side of the tub.

"I saw it too! It's under the soap bubbles!"

The Mero quickly and frantically ran over to the tub, but instead of finding his way there, he found his feet giving out from under him and his back hitting the floor. It took him a second to figure out what had happened. He sat up and rubbed his head. The Twins laughed and giggled until he started to get up. He moaned and caught sight of the bar of soap that had escaped the Twins a few minutes earlier and started grumbling in French. Crawling over to the tub, the Mero grabbed hold of the tub's side and struggled to stand up. He gave the Twins an evil look as he lifted himself to a standing position.

"NOW!" The Mero began. "Where is this thing you saw?"

"Right in there." Two pointed to an area of the tub.

The Mero rolled up his shirt sleeve and placed his hand down in the soapy water and cautiously felt around. After grabbing hold of something, he pulled it up.

"Is this your monster?" The Mero glared at the Twins while holding up the washcloth Perse had been washing One with. The Twins sheepishly smiled and cowered. The Mero violently threw the cloth back in the water, sending a spray of soap suds and water onto the floor and the Twins. With his hand dripping, the Mero made his way over to the sink.

The Twins soon found a new entertainment when they discovered the tub's water faucets. Two turned one of the handles and a stream of cold water came out of the faucet. One started turning the other one.

"Where is that woman?" The Mero grumbled to himself as he walked out into the hall for a few minutes then back into the bathroom.

"Daddy!" the Twins shouted at the same time. "We can't get the water to shut off!"

The Mero ran over to the side of the tub and started turning the handles in every direction, but no matter how he turned them the water continued to flow. Finally one of the handles gave way and came off into the Mero's hand.

"This is all I need!" The Mero shouted before going off in French. "Persephone!" he shouted. He quickly looked down and saw that the water was overflowing the bathtub and running onto the floor and his shoes. "Persephone!" he again shouted louder, stepping out of the way of the flowing water and shaking his shoes off.

Finally Persephone came into the room.

"What's going on in here? Why is water all over the floor?"

"Stop asking questions and help me turn this water off!" The Mero shouted. Perse ran over beside her husband and helped him turn the handles until the water quit flowing. Both of them sighed in relief then turned toward the Twins. The Twins looked at them silently.

"Who did this?" Perse asked the Mero.

All he did was point in the Twins' direction. After straightened up and walking over to the bathroom door, his shoes slopping on the wet floor, the Mero turned to Perse.

"After you get done with them, I want to see them for awhile." The Mero calmly said before turning and leaving.

Perse turned toward the Twins and sighed.


	21. Fun and Games... Sorta

Persephone slowly brought the Twins into the Merovingian's study and closed the door behind her. The place was quiet. In fact it was a little too quiet for comfort. The Merovingian sat at his desk and quietly wrote on a piece of paper.

Both twins held on tight to Perse's dress and shuffled their feet nervously.

"Here are the Twins, dear. You said you wanted to see them." Perse struggled to say.

The Merovingian looked up from his desk and laid his pen down.

"Don't spank them too hard." said Perse, as her husband stood up and started toward her and the Twins. One and Two tried to hide behind Perse.

"Who said I was going to spank them?"

The Twins peered up at the Mero.

"You aren't?" Perse replied.

"No." The Mero looked down at the Twins and sighed. "Even though I know I should, I'm not. Instead I'm going to give them back their phasing."

Both Twins ran to the Mero and wrapped their small arms around his legs.

"I realize that everything that's happened is my fault and everyone has blamed me for it. So to end all this madness I'm going to give the Twins back their powers so we can all go back to the way we were." The Mero bent down and picked up One and looked at him carefully. "That is, if both of them will promise to behave themselves from now on."

One smiled sheepishly at the Mero.

"We promise to be good." he said.

"You'd better be." The Mero warned. "Because if you don't, I'll…" The words caught in the Mero's throat as he looked into One's innocent eyes. He sighed and put the child down next to his sibling. "Get out of here, both of you." he calmly said before walking over to his desk again.

Perse opened the door to let the Twins out then shut it again. She looked over at her husband and smiled.

"You like them, don't you?"

The Mero glanced up then back at his papers.

"Like who?" he grumbled.

"The Twins, of course. Who else is there?" Perse giggled.

"Is it obvious?" he replied.

"A little."

"Okay, okay, I'll admit it. They are fun to have around. I guess I do think of them as sons sometimes."

"They're adorable once you get used to them." Perse smiled.

"Yeah, yeah. Whatever."

"If you just give them a chance, I know you will love them."

"Perse, dear, I'm trying to work here." The Mero tapped his chin with the tip of his ink pen while he spoke.

"Anything you say." Perse turned to open the door.

When Persephone had let herself out and closed the door behind her, the Merovingian sighed to himself while trying to concentrate on what he had been doing. Finding it useless, he threw his pen down and got up and started for the door. Opening it, he found himself face to face with the Twins, who stood innocently and holding a board game in their hands.

"Daddy, will you play Monopoly with us?" both Twins said together, looking as pitiful as possible at the Mero. The Merovingian stood a few minutes, looking the two over. It was bad enough having them call him 'Daddy', of which he had not yet gotten over, but to play games with them…!

The Merovingian sighed and closed his eyes.

"Yes." he breathed. "Let's go into the living room."

"Yayyyy!" the two children screamed in glee as they raced off in front of the Mero.

The Merovingian sighed again and softly shook his head. He must have been out of his mind to agree to play a game with the Twins. What did they know about playing a game like Monopoly anyway? They were three years old and a game like Monopoly wasn't meant for children that young. Maybe if he played his cards right he could coax them out of playing it. Three year olds had short attention spans anyway, which meant that the game couldn't possibly last more than a few minutes before the Twins found something else to occupy their time.

When the Merovingian finally walked into the living room, the Twins already had the game board set up on the coffee table and were seated in their places. The Mero walked over and sat down on the edge of the couch next to Two and picked up a game piece and set it at the starting place.

"How do you kids know you can even play this game? It's about counting money and selling property. You kids are too young to do that."

"Why do we have to use money?"

"Because that's the way you play the game. You buy property, sell property, handle money, pay fees, and you kids have no clue how that even works."

Both Twins stared at each other a few minutes then slowly reached out and took a game piece each, Two choosing the dog and One choosing the car. The Merovingian took the dice and rolled. He moved his piece three places then handed the dice to Two, who eyed them as if he had no idea of what they were used for.

"What do I do with them?"

"You roll them around in your hand then you throw them down on the game board. Whatever number comes up on them, you move your game piece that many spaces."

Two did as the Mero said, afterward slamming them down on the board so hard all the pieces moved a few inches with the impact.

"Not so hard!" The Mero grabbed his piece to keep it still.

"Sorry!" Two sheepishly smiled. "Hey! There aren't any numbers on these. Just little black dots. How am I supposed to move my piece if there aren't any numbers?"

The Merovingian wanted so much to hit his head against the wall, but he tried to keep his temper under control.

"The little black dots represent numbers, Two." The Mero fingered his eyebrows. "You have to count the dots to get your number."

"Oh!" Two looked down at the dice.

"You got six, Two." The Mero sighed. "Move your dog six spaces."

Two did as he was told, carefully counting each space.

"My turn!" One snatched the dice up and rolled his turn. One die came out six, the other came out three.

"You got a nine." The Mero mumbled. "Move your car nine spaces."

"No fair! He got higher than me!" Two looked at the Mero.

"We're playing a game, Two, we aren't racing."

One moved, or rather 'drove', his car piece nine spaces, racing over and hitting Two's dog and knocking it to the side.

"Hey! You did that on purpose!" Two pushed One in the arm.

"I hit his dog!" One started giggling. "Is that in the rules? Can you hit a person's dog?"

"That's NOT funny!" Two sniveled.

"Do I have to pay the animal hospital bill?" One grinned at the Mero.

All the Mero could do was stare into space as the Twins argued over One's move. Before he realized it, both had knocked the board off the table and the Monopoly money was flying through the air like snow.

"Hey, hey! That's enough!" The Mero jumped up and grabbed both Twins by the coats and held them away from each other.

"We're supposed to be playing a game, not tearing up the room. Now go over there and sit down."

"We don't like this game." Two mumbled.

"It's too hard." One finished.

"Well do you have something else you'd like to play instead?"

"What about this game?"

The Twins jumped up and ran across the room where another board game set on a table. Both of them grabbed onto it and carried it over to the coffee table and started taking it out of the box.

"Clue?" The Merovingian read off the game's title while the Twins busied themselves with setting it up. Once the Twins found their places again, the Merovingian slowly and cautiously picked up a purple game piece and placed it at the starting point in front of him. He raised his eyebrows and turned to face the Twins.

"What do you kids know about playing this game? Don't you think you're a little too young to be playing games like this? You can't even read and understand the rules, much less understand what's going on."

"No one said we have to go by the rules." Two smiled.

The Mero stared at Two for a minute then reached for the die and began juggling it around in his hand.

"This better not turn out like the Monopoly game."

"It won't." One smiled. "Erm, do you have to count money in this one?"

"No, but you have to find out which suspect murdered who in what room and with what weapon."

"Who murdered who!" The Twins said together with a shudder.

"You mean with a weapon like this?" Two whipped out his razor, opened it and stuck it in the middle of the game board.

The Mero jumped back in alarm at seeing the pearl handled weapon. Sometimes he almost forgot that the Twins even had them.

"Uh, yes, with a weapon like that. This is just a game, though, and the weapons are already provided in the game as little metal tokens. So we don't need this." The Merovingian nervously smiled as he slowly took the razor and placed it off to the side. "Now, what colors are you?"

"I'm blue!" Two smiled.

"And I'm white!" One placed the white piece next to the Mero's.

"Don't get so close to me." The Mero said, slowly moving his game piece a little ways from One's.

One looked at the Mero with puzzled eyes. "Why?"

"I don't want your game piece breathing on mine."

Both Twins looked at each other questioningly and shrugged their shoulders. The Mero smiled to himself at seeing the Twins.

"Besides, you aren't supposed to place your piece at this starting point. Yours goes over there next to you. Two, your piece is supposed to start there, right in front of you." The Mero pointed to each place that the game pieces were supposed to go. "And the ones that aren't in use go where they're supposed to start."

The Twins set up the pieces like they were to go, and then turned to look at the Mero for what came next.

"Now you each have to take a notepad and pencil and we've got to shuffle these cards and secretly place three, one of each kind, into this little folder."

"Why?" both Twins said together.

"Because it's the rules of the game." The Mero sighed.

"I already know who did it." One grinned.

"How on earth do you know that? We haven't even started."

"I just do."

"Oh, yeah? Who did it then?"

One pointed at Two, "He did it in the closet with the dental floss!"

Two's eyes widened.

"I did not!"

"You did too!"

"You said you wouldn't tell anyone about Daddy's shoes!" Two gasped before turning a frightened look toward the Mero.

"Tell me what? What shoes?" The Merovingian's gaze narrowed.

Before he could ask anymore questions, the Twins jumped up and took off running for the door and disappeared out into the hall.

"That's great!" The Mero mumbled to himself while grabbing up the game pieces and throwing them into the box they had come out of.


	22. Ring-A-Ling Ding

"Where are they? Persephone, have you seen the Twins?" The Merovingian shouted to Perse as she walked down the hall in front of him. She shook her head and watched as the Mero stormed by her, nearly shoving her into the wall.

"Well, excuse me for breathing!" she huffed before going the same way as her husband.

In the bedroom, the Merovingian violently pulled open the closet door, nearly succeeding in ripping it totally off its hinges. Getting down on hands and knees, he picked up every pair of his shoes and looked them over for whatever possible mishap the Twins could have done to them. One by one he searched them over inside and out, but found nothing. He tossed them over his shoulder then moved on to the next pair. Grabbing a pair of Persephone's shoes by mistake, he tossed them over his shoulder too without bothering to examine them.

"What are you doing?!"

The Merovingian's head jerked up to see Persephone standing in the middle of the room.

"You wouldn't believe me if I told you." he said, turning back around to his shoes and pushing a coat out of the way of dangling on his head.

"Try me."

"You don't want to know, dear, trust me."

"I come into the bedroom to find my husband frantically rummaging through the closet and tossing shoes everywhere like he's gone mad and you tell me I don't want to know. Please, tell me what in the world you're up to!"

"It's those Twins again. We were playing a game of Clue," The Mero stopped and searched a shoe over before tossing it past Perse. "And I found out that they have done something to a pair of my shoes!"

"They told you they did something to your shoes during a game of Clue?" A look of worry and concern swept across Persephone's face as she continued to watch the Merovingian toss shoes around. "What did they do? Stab them with the dagger in the billiard room?"

The Merovingian didn't answer but continued to search every shoe over, sometimes twice.

"I worry about you sometimes, I really do." Perse mumbled before turning to lay some clothes on the bed.

The Mero didn't hear what his wife had said to him

"All of these shoes look fine to me." Perse continued, rolling a shoe over on its side with the tip of her shoe. "Are you sure they weren't playing with you?"

"They sounded serious!" The Mero looked up at his wife. "Although it is hard to know what to believe from those two sometimes."

"Where are they now?"

"That's what I asked you a few minutes ago." The Mero stood up and gazed at Perse. "They ran out of the room the second after they mentioned my shoes and I haven't seen them since then."

"We'd better go find them!" Perse ran toward the bedroom door with the Mero close behind her.

Unknown to the Merovingian and Persephone, the Twins had run off into a small neighborhood just outside of the city, where they entertained themselves by running down the sidewalk and irritating people's dogs.

Both of them soon came to a stop and breathed.

"Now what?" Two gasped for air.

"You want to really have some fun?" One smiled.

"Like what?"

"Like ringing doorbells!"

Two searched his brother's face over for a good few minutes before smiling.

"You see, we run up to a house, ring the doorbell then phase before they come to the door."

"That would be fun!" Two grinned and laughed. "But how do we reach the doorbell? We're too short."

"We can use a stick or we can lift each other up." One took off running. "C'mon! Let's go!"

Together, One and Two raced down the sidewalk until they came to the first house. They grabbed up a long tree limb then used it to ring the doorbell with. Before whoever it was that lived there came to the door, the Twins phased into their ghost forms and sunk down into the ground and came up in another area where they could watch the face of the individual but not be seen. They laughed and giggled at the reaction the 'human' made when he found no one at the door. The Twins continued doing this to each house along the way, each time getting a kick and enjoyment out of the expressions and reactions each person made when they opened their front doors to find no one there.

Back at the chateau, it was several hours before the Merovingian finally gave up searching for whatever the Twins had said about his shoes. He was at his desk, mumbling something in French to himself when one of the butlers knocked and entered the room.

"What is it?" The Mero gruffly greeted the butler.

"There seems to be some commotion in a neighborhood not far from here."

"So?"

"It involves the Twins, sir."

The Merovingian's eyes widened.

"What have they done now?"

"It appears that they are running loose, ringing people's doorbells and disappearing."

Before the butler had a chance to say anything else, the Merovingian had already run past him and out into the hall. He ran all the way to the parking garage and jumped into the first car that was nearest him and sped off toward the city. It wasn't too long before he caught sight of the Twins running through one of the yards of the nearby neighborhood, their silver dreadlocked hair glistening in the sun's light. Before the car even came to a stop, the Merovingian jumped out and took off running behind the Twins.

"Hey! Stop right there!" he shouted. It was no use though, the Twins caught sight of who was chasing them and disappeared into the ground to who knows where. The Mero quickly searched the yards around him for any signs of the Twins appearing again. Suddenly he heard a woman's scream come from the backyard of one of the houses.

"Ghost! Ghost!" he heard the frantic woman's voice shout. After finding where it was coming from, the Merovingian ran in the direction of the screaming and swung open a gate leading into a quaint backyard that was surrounded by a white fence. As he made his way around the edge of the house he could now hear familiar crying along with the woman's screams of terror. What met the Mero's eyes next was the Twins sitting on the patio, crying and bawling while a terror-stricken elderly woman held a broom over her head, about to pound the Twins again if they so much as moved toward her. It was obvious that the woman, out of fear, had given the poor Twins a good whack with her broom the moment they phased into solid form.

"Stop!" the Mero rushed between the Twins and the woman. "Don't hit them. I can explain."

"Who are you?" the woman nervously asked, slowly easing her broom down and adjusting her spectacles to focus the man in front of her.

"I'm the," The Mero glanced behind him at the small children. "I'm the boys' father. These kids didn't mean you any harm."

"But I saw them! They're ghosts! They were hideous monsters before they became kids."

"Nonsense! Everyone knows there's no such thing as a ghost. You were probably just seeing things because they ran into your yard so fast and nearly knocked you down. Probably a sign you've been out in the sun for too long."

"I guess you're right." The woman glanced at the Twins.

"Besides, why would I be the father of a couple of ghosts? That's silly." The Mero forced himself to laugh.

"It is, isn't it?" The woman started to laugh too. "Sorry about hitting the little darlings with my broom. They just took me by surprise and nearly scared the wits out of me. Hope they aren't hurt."

"Nah, I don't think they're hurt." The Mero turned back around. His eyes widened at seeing the Twins gone. Both he and the woman looked around for them but the Twins were nowhere to be seen.

"Gotta go!" the Mero shouted as he ran off to find the Twins again.

"Be careful!" the woman shouted after him.

The Merovingian spotted the Twins, again, ringing someone's doorbell. Before he could catch them they phased and disappeared. The Mero sighed and turned toward the house that was a few feet away from where he had stopped. He braced himself and pressed the doorbell. He would have to apologize to whoever it was even though he didn't feel up to it. A woman came to the front door only a few minutes after he rung. She was sweaty, tired looking, and wore some old jeans and a loose fitting top. Apparently she had been spending the day cleaning the house.

"Are you the one going around ringing doorbells?" The woman burst out in anger at the Merovingian. He opened his mouth to say something, but the woman continued on. "You should be ashamed of yourself! A grown man going around playing annoying childish pranks like that! It's a disgrace, that's what it is! I spend my whole day cleaning the house, watching that the children don't cram something down the toilet or in the oven, I've put up with dogs barking, and here you have the nerve to come and ring my doorbell for nothing!"

Before turning to leave, the woman reached out and slapped the Mero across the face then slammed the door. The Merovingian could hear familiar giggling from behind him. He didn't have to turn around to see who it was. He already knew.

"I suppose you think zis is funny?" he said, slowly turning to eye the Twins.

Both Twins smiled together then continued giggling.

The Merovingian took off running and jumped off the porch in hopes of catching the Twins before they could escape his grasp again. The man landed stomach down on the ground and succeeded in catching the Twins by the coattails just as they started to run off, knocking them to the ground with him.

"Gotcha!" he said in victory. "Now, you are coming home with me and I don't want any arguments about it!"

The Twins burst out crying as if the Merovingian had done some horrible thing to them.

"You can cry and scream all you want, but I'm not falling for it."

The Twins sniveled and looked up into the Mero's face as he dragged them along by their silver coats and opened the car's door. With some difficulty, the Mero managed to get the troublesome twins into the backseat.

"Now you two had better not phase and get out if you know what's good for you! I am about sick of all zees shenanigans!"

"What's that?" both twins said together.

"What's what?"

"Shinagins."

"Shenanigans. It means reckless behavior. What you two have been doing now for about two weeks!"

The Merovingian slammed the car door shut and proceeded to walk around to the driver's side.


	23. Sparkly Things

As the Merovingian drove back to the chateau, the car was unusually quiet. At times, the Mero glanced around behind him to make sure the Twins were still in the backseat. They were. One fiddled with the rings on his small fingers while Two sat huddled next to the door, quietly sucking his thumb.

"What about my shoes?" The Merovingian said, breaking the long silence. "What did you two do to them?"

More silence followed.

"Well?"

"It was Two's fault." One said at last.

"Was not! You helped!" Two cried in defense.

"I don't care whose fault it is, I just want to know what you did to them!"

"We wanted some string and couldn't find any," One started

"So we took the shoelace out of a pair of your shoes and replaced it with dental floss."

The Merovingian rolled his eyes and let out a long sigh, trying his best to hold his temper. He wanted so bad to let go of the wheel, reach back, and literally pick up and throw the Twins out of the car. Something tugged at him though. He knew he wasn't that heartless.

"We're sowwy." Said both Twins in the sorriest tone possible.

"First question," The Mero changed the subject. "Why did you want string?"

"Can't tell you."

The Mero's eyebrows perked.

"Okay, second question. Why did you replace the shoestring with dental floss?"

"We were hoping that you wouldn't notice the shoestring gone if we replaced it with another string."

"Third question, what did you do with the shoes?"

"Uh, we threw them away."

"Why did you throw them away?!"

"They looked so stupid with the dental floss strung in them that we had to throw them away!"

The Mero slowed the car and leaned his head against the steering wheel.

"Why me?" he softly breathed to himself.

"What's wrong, Daddy?"

"Nothing." The Mero sighed. "Nothing at all."

The Merovingian stopped the car and sat with his head on the wheel for a good two minutes before he finally got up enough nerve to drive on. He sighed again.

"If you wanted string, why didn't you use the dental floss instead of the shoestrings?"

"It wasn't tough enough." said One.

~

When the Merovingian returned to the chateau, the Twins had tears streaming down their faces and as soon as the Mero placed them down, they ran off somewhere as fast as they could go. Persephone walked up to her husband just in time to see the Twins disappear down a hall.

"What happened?" she asked.

The Mero was in the process of putting his belt back on his pants.

"I'll tell you what happened. Your little darlings were in a neighborhood, ringing people's doorbells for a practical joke! They nearly scared a woman out of her wits, I got blamed for it all, and they threw a pair of my good shoes away because they had taken the shoestrings out and replaced them with dental floss!"

Perse blinked a few times at the news.

"And it is now clear that they won't forget for awhile. I gave them a good whipping and told them they had better not phase until they learn a lesson from it." The Mero finally got his belt buckled again. "And don't you say anything about it either! It's time those two learned what a good discipline feels like."

Without another word, the Merovingian stormed past Perse and disappeared. He tried hunting for his shoes in the trashcan that the Twins had told him they threw them in, but one of the maids had already emptied it for the day and the shoes were declared lost forever. About an hour later, once again Persephone and the Merovingian were having a conversation in his office about, what else, the Twins.

"I'm telling you, they are about to cross me one time too many!" the Mero roared. "It was all I could do not to hand them over for adoption when I was in that neighborhood."

"Mero," Persephone sighed.

"Don't Mero me! I have about had it with those two!" The Mero stormed around the room and mussed his hair up with his fingers. "I can't even rest or do anything anymore! Soon as I turn my back, the Twins are either about to blow something up or they're rolling down the stairs or writing on zee walls or stuffing food up Cain's nose or--or something!"

"When did they stuff food up Cain's nose?" Perse's eyes grew wide.

"I dunno, but I wouldn't put it past them!"

Persephone remained silent and watched as her husband continued to vent his anger, half in English and half in French. The female vampire did all she could to block out half of it, but at the same time pretended to look like she was paying attention to every word. She did have to admit that the Mero was right about everything; however she didn't know what to do about it anymore than he did.

"Well, maybe they'll learn their lesson after today. After the whipping you gave them earlier." Perse said.

"Let us hope!"

The next day found the Twins running down the dungeon stairs and into the dungeon itself, where Cain and Abel were bent over a medium sized box while talking and laughing.

"Whatcha doin'?" little One asked as he and his brother approached the two werewolves.

"Nothing." Cain cleared his throat. "Nothing that would interest you two."

"How do you know?" Two said, putting his hands behind him and smiling.

"Because it's grownup stuff." Abel smirked.

Cain motioned toward the stairs. "Better run along before you get yourselves into more trouble."

"We don't want to go!" they both exclaimed together. "We'll just stand here and watch."

The werewolves turned their attention back to their box and didn't bother to notice the Twins anymore. Cain picked up one of the items in the box and showed it to Abel, who took it from Cain's hand and examined it closer.

"That one should make a good display!" Cain chuckled. "The bigger, the better."

"Yep! How about this one?" Abel reached down in the box and pulled out one bigger than Cain had handed him.

"Ah, yes!"

"What is it?" The Twins said together, getting frustrated at the werewolves' conversation that they had no clue about.

"A firework!" Abel turned an irritated gaze toward the youngsters. "What did you think it was?"

"What's a firework?" One asked timidly.

"Something that goes boom at night!" Cain chuckled.

"And makes a lot of pretty sparks." Abel added with a laugh.

"But it's not something young kids like you should be playing with." Cain raised his eyebrows and peered at the Twins over the tops of his dark shades.

"Told you it was grownup stuff." Abel grunted.

Now if these had been normal kids, they would have gotten the hint that fireworks were dangerous to play with and would have gone away to do something else without bothering to think about it anymore. However, the werewolves' warnings only sparked the Twins' curiosity even more, and they didn't help matters any by explaining to the young ghosts what the fireworks actually did. Evidently Cain and Abel had not yet realized that the Twins were automatically drawn to dangerous things because it was part of their instincts. While thinking they were discouraging the Twins from bothering the fireworks, they only succeeded in fueling the Twins' interest more.

"How do they work?" Two innocently asked.

"Why do you want to know?"

"We just do." Two smiled.

"Any time you smile like that, I get nervous." Abel slowly bent down and peered into Two's face.

The young twin continued to smile innocently.

"Cain! Abel! I need you up here." The Merovingian's voice suddenly called down the dungeon stairs. The two werewolves acknowledged then turned back to the Twins.

"When we come back, I want to see those fireworks still in the box. Understand?" Abel sternly gazed at Two and then at One. Both Twins nodded that they understood then watched as Cain and Abel walked up the stairs and disappeared into the hallway above. After they were gone, the Twins mulled around the dungeon then sat down and started drawing pictures on the stone dungeon floor with colored chalk they had taken out of their pockets. It didn't take long until the Twins stopped what they were doing and looked in the direction of the box of fireworks setting on the table across from them.

One looked at Two, and Two returned the glance.

"How do you suppose they work?" One finally said aloud.

Two shrugged his shoulders as if he didn't care and went back to his drawing.

"Aren't you even the least bit curious?"

"Nope." Two said, not bothering to look up. "I'm not going to get in trouble with Daddy again. Not after yesterday. If you had any brains at all you'd do the same."

"Hey! Let's not get personal." One frowned. "I've got brains!" One playfully tugged on a lock of Two's hair, causing him to yelp.

"Then use them!" Two screamed irritably while rubbing his head. "You've gotten me in trouble too many times and I'm not going to fall for your tricks anymore. Go ahead and find out how they work, I don't care. I'll just sit back and grin when you find out how Daddy works too. And when you do, don't come whining to me when your rear end feels his belt again!"

One sighed to himself and continued drawing too. The thought of the fireworks soon left his mind and he was glad. He, too, didn't want to run across the irritable mood of the Merovingian again. The whipping he had given both of them the day before crossed One's mind at that moment. It was something he didn't care to experience again anytime soon.

One's thoughts were interrupted by a soft snorting and growling that came from one of the dark corners of the dungeon.

Both Twins looked at each other in alarm.

"W-What was that?" Two whimpered.

"I dunno. It came from over there." One pointed.

The growling was heard again, louder this time. Unknown to the two twins, their talking had aroused Cujo, the leader of the werewolves. He was sometimes seen plotting evil plans with Vlad, but when he wasn't he spent his time in the dungeon and even lived there. He was a gruesome creature that thought of himself as the Mero's guard dog. Anyone who dared to enter the dungeon was fair game.

"There it is again." Two nervously eyed One.

"Probably a rat." One said to ease Two's mind, and even his own.

"If it is, I'd hate to meet it. It sounds awfully big."

"Now don't go turning into a baby again."

"I'm not a baby!" Two sniveled.

"Then don't act like one." One started to get up. "Come on; let's go see what it is."

"No!"

"Fine, stay here then." One walked past Two and into the dimly lit area behind them. It was dark except for several torches and lanterns that hung from the walls and ceiling. What light they gave off, however, was barely enough to see where you were going.

"One?" Two called out after One had disappeared into the darkness. There was no answer. Two called again, but One wasn't anywhere to be seen.

"If you're trying to scare me, it's not gonna work!" Two's voice echoed off the stone walls. "One?"

At that moment a scream was heard off in the distance, which was followed by a loud snarl. Before Two realized it, One had bounded out of the darkness at remarkable speed and slammed into Two, causing both of them to roll over.

"What happened!" Two tried to see what was following. "What did you do?"

"I didn't do anything! There's something living in there. I think it's one of Daddy's werewolves."

"You think?" Two's voice was about to crack.

"Hurry! We've gotta get out of here. This time if anything happens, it wasn't our fault."

The Twins grabbed the chalk they had been drawing with and headed for the stairs. Before they could make it out, Cujo bounded through the air and landed in front of them. The ugly beast snarled at them and bore his fangs. Without any warning, Cujo started to chase the poor Twins around the dungeon. Two and One screamed for help, but it was useless. No one could hear them all the way down there. Two ran underneath the table the box of fireworks were setting on and scrunched down.

"One! Under here! Quick!" Two called after his brother, who was still running and phasing trying his best to get away from the savage beast that pursued him. One made it hard for Cujo to catch him as he tried making his way over to the table where Two waited for him. The little twin zigzagged and phased, causing Cujo to slip and slide all over the dungeon floor, knocking over crates and boxes and other items that were piled up against the walls. Finally the werewolf got tangled in some chains and shackles that hung from the dungeon's stone walls, slowing him up enough for One to make it over and crawl under the table with his brother.

"You okay?" Two asked.

"Yes," One puffed and gasped for air. "I think so."

"Look out! He's charging!"

Before Two could even finish, Cujo bounded for the table, knocking it over against the wall with the Twins running out from under. The impact of Cujo hitting the table against the wall caused a candle setting on a shelf above it to fall off and into the spilled box of fireworks. Of course this meant nothing to Cujo, who didn't even realize what he had done. All his mind was set on was catching the Twins. Truthfully it went unnoticed for a few minutes until a loud and deafening popping and banging was heard. Both the Twins and Cujo nearly jumped out of their skins at the sudden chaotic noise and turned toward the table across the room. For a good while the Twins and Cujo forgot each other and their attentions were fixed on the overturned box, which poured multicolored sparks and small balls of fire in every direction.

Cujo dodged a flaming red ball that came in his direction, and then turned to dive for cover. Another ball of sparkle and flame followed the bewildered werewolf and hit him in the back of the head. Whimpering and screaming, he ran off into the darkness where he first came from while shaking the sparks from his hair. The Twins had no idea what to do. For a time they were dumbfounded by the display of light and color and sound.

"What is it?" Two breathed in amazement.

"I dunno."

Pop, pop, pop, pop, pop, went the string of firecrackers that were hidden inside the box. The Twins jumped and grabbed hold of each other.

"It's shooting at us!" Two screamed. "It's got a machine gun!"

"But I don't see anyone!" One screamed back, over the noise.

"M-Maybe it's spooks!" Two whimpered.

"Yeah, maybe it..." One stopped himself and looked at Two, who turned and looked at One. Both felt rather stupid at their conclusion that it was a ghost. They were ghosts!

The Twins turned back toward the box, which at that moment belched out a spray of green, silver, and red sparks in their direction.

"Run, Two!" One shouted before pushing Two out of the way. Both twins ran in two directions, the balls of color bouncing off the walls and ceiling. Two screamed when one came near to hitting him. Fortunately he phased, allowing the green sparkle to go through him and hit the wall. Another explosion sent a fountain spray of silver sparkles into the air and around the dungeon, one of which hit the side of a box that One was hiding behind.

"When is it going to stop?" Two yelled to One. The fireworks were so loud that either one of them could barely hear each other.

"I don't know!" One shouted from behind his hiding place.

Not a moment too soon, the sound of maddening footsteps could be heard on the dungeon stairs and the face of the Merovingian was seen, followed by Cain and Abel.

"What goes on down here?" The Mero yelled over the noise of the fireworks. "It sounds like the battle of Waterloo!"

But before anyone could answer, another explosion sent purple and gold sparks spewing into the Mero's face. He screamed in terror and he and Cain and Abel ran like idiots behind some crates.

"Our fireworks!" Cain groaned.

"Your what?" The Merovingian growled, wiping his face with a handkerchief.

"Our fireworks." Abel repeated. "We had a box of fireworks down here. Something must have set them off."

"Those twins!" Cain growled. "They were down here when we left to go upstairs."

"I should have known." The Mero grumbled. "Anything that happens around this place anymore, you'd better believe the Twins are standing nearby."

The Mero slowly raised his head above the crate, then quickly ducked back down when a yellow sparkle whizzed by where his head would have been.

It seemed like hours, but really it was only about twenty minutes. The fireworks finally died down to a mere fizzle, leaving the dungeon filled with a thick gunpowder smoke. Tiny fires dotted the floor where pieces of the fireworks were still smoldering. The box they were once in was burnt to a crisp and bellows of smoke continued to pour from it.

The Merovingian and Cain and Abel slowly crept out of their hiding place, half expecting a wild spark to come flying towards them in a last fight. A sudden pop almost sent them diving, but they continued to stand when they realized it was only a firecracker that had failed to go off in the heat of the others.

"Open up something and let this smoke out of here." The Mero said to the two werewolves.

"Yes, Master." Cain and Abel said in unison.

"And stamp these fires out. I don't want the whole chateau burned up." The Mero stomped on a smoldering piece as he grumbled and griped.

"One! Two!" The Mero yelled. "I'm giving you three minutes to improve my mood! You'd better get your pale ghost behinds out here. NOW!"

"It's not what it looks like, Daddy!" Two shakily answered from behind some boxes over in a corner. "We didn't do it, honest!"

"He's right, Daddy. We had nothing to do with it." One said from behind a box on the other side of the room. "It was all that werewolf's fault!"

"A likely story." The Mero walked over and grabbed onto One's arm and pulled him out from behind the box he had been hiding behind.

"We didn't do it!" One started to cry. "Honest!"

"Then how can you explain you and your brother being down here in the middle of it all?"

One started to cry more as he tried prying the Mero's hand from his arm.

"Well?"

"We were down here drawing on the floor with chalk." Two continued, walking out from his hiding place.

"That's all we were doing. We had thought about exploring the fireworks Cain and Abel had, but we decided not to."

The Mero glared at Two without saying a word.

"That's the truth! You gotta believe us!" Two sniveled.

The Mero continued to glare, then slowly reached to unbuckle his belt. Two's eyes widened in fear as he started to back up.

"You gotta believe us." Two sniffed a tear away. "We were sitting here on the floor and this huge werewolf came out of there and started chasing us. He bumped into the table and the next thing we knew there were explosions everywhere."

"Cujo?" The Mero's eyebrows perked. "Cujo chased you?"

Two's head nodded frantically, his dreadlocks bobbing around his small shoulders.

"We tried going upstairs to get you, but he wouldn't let us. We tried hiding under the table, but he charged at us and knocked it over." Two started crying after he finished talking.

The Merovingian stood in the middle of the dungeon, his grasp still holding One's arm, and sighed to himself.

Cain and Abel ran up to the Merovingian after they were through carrying out his commands and were met with a stern stare.

"I thought I told you to chain Cujo up when there are people down here."

"What?" Cain looked puzzled.

"All of zis is your fault! You didn't chain Cujo up like I told you to do."

Abel pointed toward the Twins. "But I thought..."

"This time it's not their fault."

Both Twins looked up at the Merovingian and smiled, highly relieved that he believed them.

You'd better believe that Persephone was glad to see that the Twins were okay when the Merovingian brought them up from the dungeon. Perse ran and grabbed onto the Twins and hugged them tightly and smothered them with kisses. The Merovingian smiled at seeing the reaction. He was proud of them both, even though it was a pain to live with them at times. Deep down he was glad that he had brought them to the chateau to live instead of them going back to the Source. Someday maybe they would turn into a couple good assassins after all.

The End


End file.
